SITES Thematic programs are one form of collaboration, connecting individual stations in order to support and enhance research on both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems as well as offering open data from long-term monitoring and experimental installations.
SITES Spectral, coordinated by Lund University, is engaging new users for its infrastructure by offering open and free access to high-quality FAIR datasets. Concurrently, it is expanding research projects to support the advancement of the agritech industry in Skåne. This effort includes exploring synergies with local partners such as Agrodit, an innovative agritech startup located at Ideon Science Park in Lund.
The Erken lab has purchased a new instrument that can monitor seasonal changes in the lake’s phytoplankton. It was purchased with a grant from the Malmens foundation to Jorrit Mesman, a limnology post doc, who plans to use the data to improve the calibration of lake phytoplankton models. Beyond that, we expect this monitoring will provide a valuable addition to our ongoing lake monitoring program. The instrument makes use of a technique called delayed fluorescence (DF).
SITES Thematic Programs are one form of collaboration, connecting individual stations in order to support and enhance research on both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems as well as offering open data from long-term monitoring and experimental installations.
The ongoing work on estimating the discharge in the streams at Röbäcksdalens field station was initiated in the spring of 2023. At the time, the final phase of the snowmelt runoff was generating a peak stream flow. At Röbäcksdalen, a tracer is used to measure the discharge. The tracer is common table salt and it is injected (the mass balance method) into the stream, generating a dispersed cloud of conductivity change in the stream. The change in conductivity is then used to estimate the discharge.
This week SITES Water and SITES AquaNet field and lab techs met at Erken Laboratory for a joint workshop across the two Thematic Programs. The workshop focused on the current status and development of SITES Water and SITES AquaNet, along with sessions specific for the technical staff at the station. The sessions addressed life as field and lab tech, field and lab protocols, sensor calibrations, greenhouse sampling and hydrological measurements. The group also took a walk on ice-covered lake Erken for a hands on snow and ice measurement demonstration by the Erken staff.
At Erken Laboratory, the extensive year-round lake monitoring program on Malma Island provides valuable data to the global lake modelling community. Several Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) initiatives have utilized high-frequency data from Erken to understand lakes in a changing global environment.
To kick-off the year, SITES leadership team, including the Secretariat, the SITES Station Managers and Thematic Program leads, met in-person at SITES Grimsö Wildlife Research Station this week (30-31 Jan 2024). The meeting provided an opportunity to reflect on SITES accomplishments from 2023 as well as strategize and prioritize for 2024.
At Skogaryd Research Catchment (SRC), the flow and balance of nutrients are studied in various ecosystems and across the whole catchment. Since January, deposition of nutrients has been measured, inching towards complete nutrient budgets.
The ongoing process with uploading data to the SITES Data Portal continues. For Asa Research Station, as ice beings to settle on lake Feresjön, the SITES Water monitoring is reduced from biweekly sampling to monthly. This allows for more time to process and upload SITES Water data.