The recognition of global change impacts on catchments and the waters they drain emphasizes the need to better understand and predict hydrological and biogeochemical dynamics across terrestrial-aquatic interfaces. To achieve this great endeavor, a key priority is to substantially increase the number of multi-annual time series, covering a broad range of river ecosystems and filling existing geographical gaps (e.g., low-income regions in/and the Global South). However, commercial sensors solutions are not affordable to everyone. Aiming to overcome this financial challenge we have designed and optimized a low cost autonomous multi-sensor system for monitoring hydrological and biogeochemical dynamics in soil and fluvial ecosystems. The system consists of a STM32 micro-controller board combined with a data logger module, and a set of sensors to measure hydro-chemical properties both at different depths in soil and within streams: temperature, water level, moisture, electrical conductivity, dissolved O₂ and CO₂. The monitoring system also integrates a wireless communication capability using WIFI or LoRa network technologies. To make our project as accessible as possible, we have designed, build and program the multi-sensor adopting the Open Source Hardware and Software philosophy. Through the complete processes of pre-calibration and in situ measurement, the preliminary results illustrate that the proposed multi-sensor system can provide long-term, high-frequency hydrological and biogeochemical data across land-stream interfaces, while keeping the balance of costs and accuracy.

Primary Presenter: Antoine Wiedmer, CREAF | Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre (a.wiedmer@creaf.uab.cat)

Authors:

Lluís Camarero, CSIC, Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CSIC-CEAB)  (camarero@ceab.csic.es)

Lluis Gómez Gener, CREAF | Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre  (l.gomez@creaf.uab.cat)