Gas emission measurements at an ecosystem or site relevant scale, currently require substantial infra-structure investment in terms of flux towers or hiring airplanes for measurements, which renders the methods logistically difficult, inflexible and ultimately rare. Although there are moves towards satellite based technologies for measuring gas concentrations these methods do not provide information on the potential sources, sinks and processes driving the gas emissions that stable isotope based Keeling Plot techniques do. Consequently site specific methods for gas sampling and flux portioning are still required.
Given this, hundreds if not thousands of researchers and authorities around the world are seeking new technologies to accurately measure gas emissions easily, from a vast variety of urban, natural and agro ecosystems across the globe.
In the last couple of years easy access to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has opened up new opportunities for remote gas sampling. These measurements could all be achieved at any remote site with minimal infrastructure costs, personnel training and possibilities for outsourcing of gas analysis and flux calculations. The ultimate vision of a plug and play Iso-2-Drone coupled with a full service package would open up a much larger potential market and allow local governments, industries and research organizations to secure realistic measurements of their gas fluxes at reasonable costs.
With the original FFG Iso-Drone innovation check we at CombInnoTec GmbH and the AIT took this novel state of the art idea of Iso-Drone off the drawing board to create a functional primary prototype, which established the proof of principle that an independently operated gas sampling system could be constructed. With our combined expertise in mechatronics and stable isotope greenhouse gas measurements. We proved that Iso-Drone was fit for purpose in terms of providing appropriate number and volume of gas samples needed for Keeling Plots. With significant CombInnoTec investment and two subsequent small exploratory grants from the UN we further improved the technology and demonstrated that the system was light enough to fit onto an available drone and that it was capable of accurate sampling for isotope analysis and thus calculation of GHG flux measurements specifically carbon dioxide. Now in this project we want to develop these nascent innovations and early prototypes into a commercially packaged, thoroughly tested and easily integrated gas sampling module that could fit onto any UAV's with appropriate payload capability and explore the possibilities of offering a full service package; rendering Iso-2-Drone the go to product for GHG flux measurements. We therefore want to team up with one of the forefront UAV companies in the environmental research sector in the USA, namely M3 Consulting Group, to further develop, test and place our product in a strategic position in the global market.
Carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios of modern pollen from abundant European tree species (Abies alba, Acer pseudoplatanus, Alnus glutinosa, Betula pendula, Carpinus betulus, Corylus avellana, Fagus sylvatica, Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris, Quercus robur). The pollen samples were collected in 2015 and 2016 in their respective flowering period in natural habitats. The dataset comprises additional information about the sampling surrounding and environmental factors for each sample.
Coastal wetlands can serve as natural laboratories for assessing the future impacts of sea-level rise and the intricacies of the effect of sulfate (SO42-) on emissions of greenhouse gases, such as methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide. In the case of previously drained and freshened wetlands, we can observe how freshwater terrestrial microbial communities react and adapt to intrusion of SO42- rich saline waters. We conducted a 3-month anoxic incubation experiment with soil extracted from a peatland on the German Baltic coast which was rewetted with brackish water in late 2019 to examine how microbial communities at the site had adapted to the new conditions after two years. Soil slurries were incubated at a moderate temperature of 15 °C at two different salinities (reflecting surface water and average peat soil water salinity) and sampled at 8 timepoints. At each timepoint 5 replicates of each treatment were destructively harvested and sampled for concentrations of CH4, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total aqueous organic carbon, SO42-, ammonium, and other major ions, pH values, qPCR analysis, and δ13DIC and δ13CH4 values.