Gas exchange measurements (e.g. on greenhouse gases including CO2) are often made with the closed, non-steady state chamber technique whereby a chamber is placed on top of the soil for a short interval and the change in gas concentrations in the chamber headspace is monitored over time - either by continued measurements or sampling of gas aliquots from the chamber headspace. The resulting time series of gas concentration measurements makes it possible to estimate the surface–atmosphere exchange with the plot on which the chamber was installed. In open dynamic systems (=steady-state flow-through systems) fresh ambient air is pumped into or pulled from a chamber, and flux is calculated using the air flow rate and the difference in concentrations between the air entering and leaving the chamber after the air in the chamber headspace has reached a steady state.
We are / were involved in several research projects aiming to develop automatic, UAV-based gas sampling technology ("Iso-Drone") allowing to measure isotope rates of greenhouse gases and water vapour to replace costly research infrastructure such as Eddy towers etc.
We are involved in a R&D project aiming to develop an automatic chamber system for automatic CO2 efflux measurements in situ.
We are excited to provide a first preview on the novel VSI high-throughput auto-sampler system to facilitate gas emission measurements (in particular soil efflux) under controlled conditions in the laboratory / climate cabinet!
See HERE for more pre-information on key features and more images.
Get in contact if you are interested in early testing and hands-on!