Brown S L, Goulsbra C S, Evans M G, Heath T, Shuttleworth E
Geography Department, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
HardwareX. 2020 Sep 1;8:e00136. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2020.e00136. eCollection 2020 Oct.
Understanding the spatial variability of gaseous carbon flux at a landscape scale requires intensive monitoring campaigns necessitating significant and perhaps prohibitive financial investment. Commercially available CO sensors may only partially fulfil the requirements of the researcher, thereby generating inadequate data. In this context we present the fully replicable designs for a low-cost, microcontroller-based gaseous CO concentration data logger suitable for field deployment at scale. It demonstrates a post-calibration accuracy of 96-99% and large onboard data storage for data collected at user-defined intervals. The sensor can be powered via USB or batteries, assembled by novice users, and produced for approximately £155. Post-calibration it was used to measure CO evasion from a peatland stream, environments known to be spatially and temporally variable CO sources, although potential applications are much wider in scope. The proliferation of low-cost, open-source, and user-made sensors in physical sciences could allow researchers to answer questions previously unanswerable due to the limitations of existing proprietary equipment. We encourage other research teams to use and adapt this design for a range of purposes and research questions beyond carbon processing in peatlands.
了解景观尺度上气态碳通量的空间变异性需要密集的监测活动，这需要大量且可能过高的资金投入。市售的一氧化碳传感器可能仅部分满足研究人员的要求，从而产生不充分的数据。在此背景下，我们展示了一种基于微控制器的低成本气态一氧化碳浓度数据记录器的完全可复制设计，适用于大规模实地部署。它展示了96%至99%的校准后精度以及用于按用户定义间隔收集的数据的大容量板载数据存储。该传感器可通过USB或电池供电，由新手用户组装，生产成本约为155英镑。校准后，它被用于测量泥炭地溪流中的一氧化碳逸出量，泥炭地溪流是已知的一氧化碳源在空间和时间上变化的环境，尽管其潜在应用范围要广泛得多。物理科学中低成本、开源和自制传感器的大量涌现，可能使研究人员能够回答由于现有专有设备的局限性而以前无法回答的问题。我们鼓励其他研究团队将此设计用于泥炭地碳处理之外的一系列目的和研究问题，并进行调整。
