Sensor-Enabled Discoveries in Ecosystem Science

Join and build a community of biogeochemists, hydrologists, and ecologists using sensors to advance ecosystem science

Are you interested in sharing and developing best practices for deploying and calibrating environmental sensors, cleaning and analyzing high-frequency data, and sharing high-frequency data and results from sensors? We invite scientists across all career stages, geographic locations, & ecosystem types to join us in an experiment to create open community & conversations among sensor users on Slack: sensorscience.slack.com. The following link should work for anyone to join for free: join Sensors on slack. Contact Erin Hotchkiss (ehotchkiss[at]vt[dot]edu) if you encounter problems when trying to join.


This group was established as part of a 2019 AGU special session "Scientific surprises from sensors: What have we learned about ecosystem science from the advancement of in situ sensors?" convened by Andrew Robison, Erin Hotchkiss, & Chris Whitney on Friday 13 December (Posters & Talks). Presenting authors and titles of talks:

  • Matthew J. Cohen - On Becoming a Sensor Connoisseur: Lessons on Discriminating When High Frequency Data Are Desirable

  • Joanna Blaszczak - Patterns and drivers of global riverine hypoxia

  • William H. McDowell - Aquatic Sensors Reveal Ongoing Changes in Stream Nitrate Dynamics in a Tropical Montane Forest

  • Catherine Chamberlin - Diel Nitrate Regimes of Streams and Rivers; Using High-Frequency Data to Find Patterns at the 24-Hour Scale

  • Tamara Harms - Flow variation and the biogeochemistry of desert streams

  • Joseph R. Roscioli - Exploring Fast Nitrogen, Carbon, and VOC Dynamics During Simulated Drought and Rewetting Events

  • Matthew Herman Long - Novel Insights from High-frequency, In-situ Primary Productivity and Physical Exchange Rates in a Seagrass-dominated Coastal Ecosystem

  • Alireza Merikhi - Cryptic high recycling of organic matter in coral carbonate sands revealed by aquatic eddy covariance


Contact Erin Hotchkiss (ehotchkiss[at]vt[dot]edu) if you'd like to add a resource to this site or have ideas about community development activities.