2023 > 04
Over the past few months, the SITES Water Thematic Program and the associated openly available data, has been featured in several events.
In December, Marcus Wallin (SITES Water Thematic Program Lead) presented a poster about SITES Water at the Hydrology Days 2022, hosted by Svenska hydrologiska rådet SHR. The theme of the event was "Freshwater: from source to sea", covering the broad spectrum of water from bio(eco)logical, physical and chemical, and society. The meeting took place in person this year at SLU Uppsala, after two years of being online, and offered a great opportunity for SITES Water to connect to academic researchers beyond SLU, including Uppsala University, Stockholm University, KTH, as well as to institutes and companies, including Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Tyréns AB and SMHI.
As seen here at Skogaryd Research Station, water is an integral part of the forest-wetland landscape. Photo: Roberto Lo Monaco
On the 2nd of March, an all day seminar titled, Hur beräknar vi Sveriges växthusgasbalans i skog, mark och vatten? - Nuvarande klimatrapportering och framtida möjligheter. (Translating to, How do we calculate Sweden’s greenhouse gas balance in forest, land and water – current climate reporting and future opportunities) brought together researchers and different stakeholders, e.g. governmental authorities, municipalities, private companies with interest in Sweden’s greenhouse gas balance. The focus was on the Land use, Land use change and Forestry sector, and how the national greenhouse gas balance is reported. The seminar also included presentations concerning greenhouse gas fluxes that are not covered in the national reporting and development of new measurement and modelling methods. Several SITES researchers as well as SITES collaborator, ICOS, presented during the seminar. It was obvious after the day that data generated within SITES are essential for improving our understanding of Sweden’s greenhouse gas balance.
Water seminar days at SLU Uppsala. Photo: Ulrika Jansson Klintberg
Later in March (the 20th and 22nd), the third internal water seminar series at SLU took place. SLU has a strong and broad expertise on water, but is spread out across different faculties, departments and campuses and thus, the water seminar series is an opportunity to connect water research at SLU as a whole. This year’s program focused on early career scholars, where Blaize Denfeld (SITES Deputy Director) presented SITES Water in the context of her PhD and PostDoc research at multiple SITES Stations including Erken, Svartberget, Skogaryd and Röbäcksdalen.
Major efforts have been made lately among SITES stations and by the Secretariat to upload data generated within the SITES Water program to the SITES Data Portal. These data include meteorology, water chemistry from lakes and streams, lake temperature and oxygen profiles, lake water level and stream discharge. The SITES Water data is now openly available on the SITES Data Portal and more will be uploaded soon.
A handful of the external research projects at Grimsö focus on large scale evaluations of practical techniques to manage wildlife-traffic problems. These projects are led by Grimsö but conducted in collaboration with several national and international stakeholders, including, e.g. the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket), Interreg Sweden-Norway and the Norwegian BaneNOR. Many issues concerning wildlife and traffic are complex but with growing importance in the last decades, both due to denser populations of large mammals and continued increase in traffic volumes. More information about the projects and innovative solutions to reduce wildlife collisions in traffic can be found at Om projektet – Vilt och Trafik.
MASS unit, plus energy source, rigged and ready at one of the test plots along a railway. Photo: Carolin Berndt
One of the current projects, “Viltvarning vid järnväg” (translating to “Wildlife warning near railroads”), focuses on identifying techniques to scare animals away from railroad areas using sounds. This is being explored as an alternative to exclusion fences and wildlife passages, as it has the potential to be a more flexible and less expensive solution. One design being tested is called a MASS unit (Movement Activated Scaring System) and uses infrared (IR) sensors to detect movements, which in turn activate speakers that send out various sounds (horns, voices etc.) at a high volume (>70 dB) to scare away animals.
b) Screenshot of an outcome from the AI for species identification in a picture; here the MASS unit was activated by a roe deer passing by. The AI identifies the object within the frame, which in this
This type of camera monitoring results in massive amounts of pictures, by far exceeding what can be handled and analyzed manually. Several automatic solutions, e.g. software & artificial intelligence (AI), for this are nowadays under test, where one tricky part is to obtain reliable and accurate identifications of species in the pictures. Depending on the position of the animal this may be more or less problematic, and in some situations impossible to achieve proper identifications. A separate part of the mentioned projects is to test software based on a machine learning processes using several different pictures of known animals, that vary in position, distance from the camera, etc. The raw data from the picture analysis shows a probability measure for which species are shown. At present, a cut off-level is often applied for an acceptable level of identification (e.g. 90%, but varies due to study aims). After removal of potential pictures showing humans, the raw data gets stored on a common platform between the Swedish Transport Administration and the project, where then AI is used to classify animals to species.
The collaborative work in this project among authorities, consultants and researchers, combined with the scientific evaluation of the methods tested, is a good example of how SITES stations can be utilized broadly.
The SITES 2023 Calendar theme is “Data in Focus”. The openly available data produced within SITES and stored on the SITES Data Portal is the “golden thread” of the infrastructure, allowing users access to ecosystem data that covers diverse habitats and climate zones across geographical gradients in Sweden. Each month follow along as we highlight a unique SITES dataset.
At Skogaryd Research Catchment, the mire Mycklemossen is equipped with an automatic weather station, which provides high-frequency meteorological data. This includes air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, wind speed and direction, incoming and outgoing shortwave radiation, incoming and outgoing longwave radiation, net radiation, albedo and precipitation. Below the mast, snow and water depth as well as soil temperature and soil heat flux is measured. In addition to SITES, ICOS-Sweden and other research projects include greenhouse gas flux measurements, stream flow and chemical analyses at the mire Mycklemossen, making it one of a few mire sites where data can be combined to determine the Net Ecosystem Carbon Balance.
Link to Data: https://meta.fieldsites.se/objects/rHd5M1DWZcGtyM8XWS_fqsmJ
The graph shows sub-hourly (30 mins) wind speed measured 2.2 m above the mire Mycklemossen over the year in 2021. The photo shows Mycklemossen, a pristine poor fen mire with bog characteristics and having shrub encroachment.
2023 > 04
Over the past few months, the SITES Water Thematic Program and the associated openly available data, has been featured in several events.
In December, Marcus Wallin (SITES Water Thematic Program Lead) presented a poster about SITES Water at the Hydrology Days 2022, hosted by Svenska hydrologiska rådet SHR. The theme of the event was "Freshwater: from source to sea", covering the broad spectrum of water from bio(eco)logical, physical and chemical, and society. The meeting took place in person this year at SLU Uppsala, after two years of being online, and offered a great opportunity for SITES Water to connect to academic researchers beyond SLU, including Uppsala University, Stockholm University, KTH, as well as to institutes and companies, including Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Tyréns AB and SMHI.
As seen here at Skogaryd Research Station, water is an integral part of the forest-wetland landscape. Photo: Roberto Lo Monaco
On the 2nd of March, an all day seminar titled, Hur beräknar vi Sveriges växthusgasbalans i skog, mark och vatten? - Nuvarande klimatrapportering och framtida möjligheter. (Translating to, How do we calculate Sweden’s greenhouse gas balance in forest, land and water – current climate reporting and future opportunities) brought together researchers and different stakeholders, e.g. governmental authorities, municipalities, private companies with interest in Sweden’s greenhouse gas balance. The focus was on the Land use, Land use change and Forestry sector, and how the national greenhouse gas balance is reported. The seminar also included presentations concerning greenhouse gas fluxes that are not covered in the national reporting and development of new measurement and modelling methods. Several SITES researchers as well as SITES collaborator, ICOS, presented during the seminar. It was obvious after the day that data generated within SITES are essential for improving our understanding of Sweden’s greenhouse gas balance.
Water seminar days at SLU Uppsala. Photo: Ulrika Jansson Klintberg
Later in March (the 20th and 22nd), the third internal water seminar series at SLU took place. SLU has a strong and broad expertise on water, but is spread out across different faculties, departments and campuses and thus, the water seminar series is an opportunity to connect water research at SLU as a whole. This year’s program focused on early career scholars, where Blaize Denfeld (SITES Deputy Director) presented SITES Water in the context of her PhD and PostDoc research at multiple SITES Stations including Erken, Svartberget, Skogaryd and Röbäcksdalen.
Major efforts have been made lately among SITES stations and by the Secretariat to upload data generated within the SITES Water program to the SITES Data Portal. These data include meteorology, water chemistry from lakes and streams, lake temperature and oxygen profiles, lake water level and stream discharge. The SITES Water data is now openly available on the SITES Data Portal and more will be uploaded soon.
A handful of the external research projects at Grimsö focus on large scale evaluations of practical techniques to manage wildlife-traffic problems. These projects are led by Grimsö but conducted in collaboration with several national and international stakeholders, including, e.g. the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket), Interreg Sweden-Norway and the Norwegian BaneNOR. Many issues concerning wildlife and traffic are complex but with growing importance in the last decades, both due to denser populations of large mammals and continued increase in traffic volumes. More information about the projects and innovative solutions to reduce wildlife collisions in traffic can be found at Om projektet – Vilt och Trafik.
MASS unit, plus energy source, rigged and ready at one of the test plots along a railway. Photo: Carolin Berndt
One of the current projects, “Viltvarning vid järnväg” (translating to “Wildlife warning near railroads”), focuses on identifying techniques to scare animals away from railroad areas using sounds. This is being explored as an alternative to exclusion fences and wildlife passages, as it has the potential to be a more flexible and less expensive solution. One design being tested is called a MASS unit (Movement Activated Scaring System) and uses infrared (IR) sensors to detect movements, which in turn activate speakers that send out various sounds (horns, voices etc.) at a high volume (>70 dB) to scare away animals.
b) Screenshot of an outcome from the AI for species identification in a picture; here the MASS unit was activated by a roe deer passing by. The AI identifies the object within the frame, which in this
This type of camera monitoring results in massive amounts of pictures, by far exceeding what can be handled and analyzed manually. Several automatic solutions, e.g. software & artificial intelligence (AI), for this are nowadays under test, where one tricky part is to obtain reliable and accurate identifications of species in the pictures. Depending on the position of the animal this may be more or less problematic, and in some situations impossible to achieve proper identifications. A separate part of the mentioned projects is to test software based on a machine learning processes using several different pictures of known animals, that vary in position, distance from the camera, etc. The raw data from the picture analysis shows a probability measure for which species are shown. At present, a cut off-level is often applied for an acceptable level of identification (e.g. 90%, but varies due to study aims). After removal of potential pictures showing humans, the raw data gets stored on a common platform between the Swedish Transport Administration and the project, where then AI is used to classify animals to species.
The collaborative work in this project among authorities, consultants and researchers, combined with the scientific evaluation of the methods tested, is a good example of how SITES stations can be utilized broadly.
The SITES 2023 Calendar theme is “Data in Focus”. The openly available data produced within SITES and stored on the SITES Data Portal is the “golden thread” of the infrastructure, allowing users access to ecosystem data that covers diverse habitats and climate zones across geographical gradients in Sweden. Each month follow along as we highlight a unique SITES dataset.
At Skogaryd Research Catchment, the mire Mycklemossen is equipped with an automatic weather station, which provides high-frequency meteorological data. This includes air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, wind speed and direction, incoming and outgoing shortwave radiation, incoming and outgoing longwave radiation, net radiation, albedo and precipitation. Below the mast, snow and water depth as well as soil temperature and soil heat flux is measured. In addition to SITES, ICOS-Sweden and other research projects include greenhouse gas flux measurements, stream flow and chemical analyses at the mire Mycklemossen, making it one of a few mire sites where data can be combined to determine the Net Ecosystem Carbon Balance.
Link to Data: https://meta.fieldsites.se/objects/rHd5M1DWZcGtyM8XWS_fqsmJ
The graph shows sub-hourly (30 mins) wind speed measured 2.2 m above the mire Mycklemossen over the year in 2021. The photo shows Mycklemossen, a pristine poor fen mire with bog characteristics and having shrub encroachment.
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