Environmental Biophysics

Weather Monitoring: Best Practices for Higher Quality Data Remote weather stations—setup matters At METER, we’ve installed thousands of remote weather stations and weather instruments over the years, so we’ve learned a lot about what to do and not to do during an installation. This article takes an in-depth look at seven basic steps you’ll want to think about as you set up your weather station in…

How to analyze soil moisture data You’ve buried soil water content and water potential (soil suction) sensors in the ground, installed an ATMOS 41 in the field, and set up your ZL6 data logger. Your network of instruments has been collecting data for weeks or even all season. Now what? Knowing how to extrapolate meaningful inferences from your data, forming big picture conclusions about what is h…

5 reasons you’re getting less accurate soil moisture release curves In this 20-minute webinar, METER scientist Leo Rivera compares available methods and teaches how to combine the latest technology to generate full, accurate curves with hundreds of points in only a couple of days—instead of a couple of months. Watch the free webinar: https://metergroup.com/webinars/5-reasons-youre-getting-less-ac…

Using Pedotransfer Functions to Predict Soil Properties In this latest chalk talk video, METER soil scientist and application expert, Leo Rivera, discusses the use of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for predicting soil properties such as hydraulic conductivity and field capacity. He explains that while direct measurements are ideal, PTFs can provide rapid, cost-effective alternatives. PTFs use soil…

The 70,000-landslide storm In 2017, Hurricane Maria ravaged the island of Puerto Rico, with category 5 winds topping out at 174 mph (282 km/h). In this mountainous nation with the 9th highest road density in the world, thousands of landslides wreaked havoc on the large number of rural communities that became cut off from supplies and travel. Dr. Stephen Hughes, a professor in the Department of Ge…

How to analyze soil moisture data You’ve buried soil water content and water potential sensors in the ground, installed an ATMOS 41 in the field, and set up your ZL6 data logger. Your network of instruments has been collecting data for days, weeks, or even all season. Now what? Performing soil moisture data analysis for your research location is one thing. Knowing how to extrapolate meaningful in…

Office Hours Episode 11: Soil Moisture There’s a lot to consider when collecting soil moisture measurements. Join Environment Support Manager, Chris Chambers, and Director of Science Outreach, Leo Rivera, as they discuss submitted questions all about getting the best soil moisture measurements. In the full episode, they discuss: - How difficult is the calibration of dielectric sensors? - How does…

A different approach to stream restoration University of Idaho graduate student, Adrianne Zuckerman, is taking a different approach to stream restoration than the traditional approach, channel manipulation, which often requires heavy equipment and major disruption to the riparian area. Zuckerman set out to understand how vegetation lining the stream bank impacts habitat quality for anadromous sal…

How To Estimate the Impact of Radiation Sources in the Environment What impact does direct solar radiation have on the overall radiation balance? Dr. Colin Campbell, WSU Environmental Biophysics professor and METER scientist, shows you how to do the calculations in our latest chalk talk. Transcript Hi, I’m Dr. Colin Campbell. And this is a METER Chalk Talk. Have you ever been outside on a hot day…

How to calculate the angle of the sun Listen to Dr. Colin Campbell, WSU environmental biophysics professor, as he discusses how to calculate the angle of the sun, or solar zenith angle. Transcription Hi, I’m Dr. Colin Campbell. And this is a METER Chalk Talk. A couple of years ago, I was heading out into the backcountry and we wanted to figure out what kind of gear we should take along. A friend …

Champions of water potential Drs. Kim Novick and Jessica Guo team up to discuss the vital role water potential measurement plays in both plant and soil sciences and the work they are doing to establish the first-of-its-kind nationwide water potential network. Join their discussion to understand how a communal knowledge of these measurements could impact what […] The post Building a National Water…

Like a silent battle cry, plants call out to signal they are under siege as a warning to other plants and to call in reinforcements to fend off the invasion. How does this communication work? What else are plants doing to protect themselves from disease and predators alike? In our latest podcast, Natalie Aguirre, a PhD […] The post Understanding the Language of Plants appeared first on Environmen…

As world water demand increases and supplies decrease, how can we turn more of the water we use for agriculture into biomass? In this webinar, Dr. Campbell dives deep into the measurement and implications of making the most of every drop of water. Crops turn sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and nutrients into food The availability of […] The post Water Resource Capture: Turning Water Into Biomass…

CONTRIBUTORS Abiotic stress in plants: How to assess it the right way As a plant researcher, you need to effectively assess crop performance, whether you’re  selecting the best variety, trying to understand abiotic stress tolerance, studying disease resistance, or determining climate resilience. But if you’re only measuring weather data, you might be missing key performance indicators. […] The po…

In our latest podcast, Dr. Bruce Bugbee, Professor of Crop Physiology and Director of the Crop Physiology Lab at Utah State University, discusses his space farming research and what we earthlings can learn from space farming techniques.  Find out what happens to plants in a zero-gravity environment and how scientists overcome the particular challenges of deploying measurement […] The post The Sci…

In this chalk talk video, world-renowned soil physicist, Dr. Gaylon Campbell, discusses how many measurements researchers and growers need to characterize soil moisture at a field or research site. He explores the question: What is the relationship between the measurements that you make and the underlying value of water content in the field? Presenter Dr. […] The post Chalk Talk: How Many Soil Mo…

In our latest podcast, Dr. Cristine Morgan, one of the US’s premier soil scientists and Chief Scientific Officer at the Soil Health Institute shares her views on soil health: what it is, how to quantify it, what’s the payoff, and why it’s so critical to our success as a society. Her thoughts? “We all live […] The post Why We Live Or Die By Soil Health appeared first on Environmental Biophysics .

In our latest podcast episode, Kevin Hyde, manager of the Montana Mesonet, discusses his views on predicting and mitigating the effects of flood and drought. He also shares how to build a robust weather network with high-quality data on a small budget, why setups should include other measurements such as soil moisture and NDVI, and […] The post Are floods and droughts really unpredictable? appear…

In his latest chalk talk, Dr. Colin Campbell, environmental scientist at METER Group, teaches how to model vertical variation in temperature and how to estimate sensible heat flux. Video transcript Hello, everyone. My name is Dr. Colin Campbell, and I’m a senior research scientist here at METER Group. For today’s chalk talk, we’ll be talking […] The post Chalk talk: How to model air temperature v…

During a recent semester at Washington State University, a film crew recorded all of the lectures given in the Environmental Biophysics course. The videos from each Environmental Biophysics lecture are posted here for your viewing and educational pleasure. Lectures Lecture 1 – Introduction to Environmental Biophysics Lecture 2 – Units of measurement, unit conversion, temperature in the environmen…