Brian is back at the station Skogaryd Research Catchment! Brian is an automatic flux chamber measurement device which performs soil greenhouse gas measurements along a transect.
The road to the comeback has been long with both a broken analyzer and broken hardware. The Covid-19 situation didn’t make it easier, as the engineers at York University, who provide support with the installation, were occupied producing face mask parts and had limited time to take care of Skogaryd´s Brian sampler.
After almost three years of service at the mire Mycklemossen, Brian has now been moved to Följemaden, a forest site, to measure carbon dioxide and methane emitting from the soil over a gradient of varying soil mositures and vegetation type, using 25 chambers installed on site. Följemaden is a clear-cut forest site soon to undergo a control-impact monitoring that will investigate different reforestation types: rewetted forest with alder and birch trees and drained forest with spruce trees.
The work with rewetting the northern part of Följemaden by constructing a concrete fencing to dam runoff water from the ditch draining the clear-cut site is still being planned. Hopefully the barrier installation can start this winter or spring next year, so Brian can start his in-situ measurements again.