Farm dam fieldwork 🐮🤠 Only a few days before the onset of Melbourne lockdown, two intrepid BCL members, Noyan and Pawel, completed a remarkable fieldwork campaign to measure farm dam emissions across the South-East of Australia. After visiting 64 farm dams and collecting 268,012 observations, we now have a massive dataset to analyse methane and carbon dioxide from farm dams across various management conditions. As part of this adventure, Noyan and Pawel got to work side-by-side with researchers from Australian National University, visit fascinating places in rural Australia, and interact with both farm and native fauna. At one of the well-managed farm dam they had a chance to meet and learn about native Peron’s Tree Frog (Litoria peronii, pictured). They also (mostly) had nice weather! This campaign is just the beginning, so keep an eye on our Farm Dam research project 👀.
R&D for automatic methane sensors 🎛⚙💭 The BCL is developing a high-throughput sensor array tailored for automatic and self-sufficient monitoring of methane from aquatic environments. By building from parts, we will construct a custom-made platform that will allow data collection at an unprecedented rate, continuously and simultaneously from up to 50 aquatic systems. Each of our sensors will be powered through a solar panel and transmit data 24/7 through the 4G network. Our upcoming technology will be essential to understand fine-scale mechanisms influencing one of the most potent greenhouse gases in nature.
