Re: [ECOLOG-L] Soil Moisture Meter for Sand
WHy not just take core samples, store them using ASTM standard methods, then weigh the sample. Dry it, then weigh it again. the lost mass is the moisture. However, it will be the total moisture not just the capillary water. Again, there are ASTM standard methods for this as well. malcolm On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 7:39 PM, Lukas Bell-Dereske lukas.dere...@gmail.com wrote: Hey Ecolog, I am looking for a portable soil moisture meter for use in a dry Great Lake dune ecosystem. The meter needs to be accurate at low moisture levels and have probes at least 40 cm long. We have a Spectrum FieldScout TDR 100 with 20 cm probes but a previous study by a lab mate found the probes were not long enough to reach the water table. I would appreciate any suggestions for soil moisture meters. Thank you all for your time Lukas -- Malcolm L. McCallum Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive - Allan Nation 1880's: There's lots of good fish in the sea W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
[ECOLOG-L] Undergraduate Tropical Ecology Conservation program
Hello Everyone: Just wanted you to know that there are still spaces for the Fall semester in two undergrad programs offered in Monteverde, Costa Rica by the Council on International Educational Exchange. Tropical Ecology Conservation Sustainability and the Environment Both are semester length, academically challenging programs that include science courses in English as well as Spanish language instruction. No Spanish is required to enroll. There is extensive travel throughout Costa Rica with excursions to either Panama or Nicaragua. For more information, please direct interested Juniors and Seniors to the CIEE website (ciee.org). Deadline to enroll is May 31st. Thanks! Alan R Masters, Resident Director amast...@ciee.org
[ECOLOG-L] Ecology and Evolution of our Wild Lives - national poster competition
Even as we spend more and more time in our houses and offices, we remain part of an incredible diversity of ecological interactions, interactions that remain relatively poorly understood. Do you have a research result, or a citizen science project, or a cool outreach idea about how the ecology and evolution of some organisms relate to our daily lives? Then you are invited to join our national Poster and Podcast Competition at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on June 30th, 5:30. Prizes: 1st place poster: $1200 2nd place poster: $500 1st place video/podcast (serious): $200 1st place video/podcast (funny): $200 The poster session will be followed by talks by NCSU researchers: Secret Life Of Termites, The Ecology And Evolution Of Bedbugs And Roaches, The Top Ten Monsters On Your Backyard Flowers, and The Wild Life Of Our Bodies. More about the event here: http://www.theglobalchangeforum.org/?p=1069 Send contributions or questions to rob_d...@ncsu.edu.
[ECOLOG-L] Graduate Research Assistantship - Climate change estuarine ecology
I am seeking a motivated student to fill a graduate assistantship at the Ph.D. level in the Marine Biology Program at Texas AM University-Corpus Christi (http://marinebiology.tamucc.edu/). The position is available beginning in August 2011, but applicants who wish to enter in January 2012 will also be considered. Current lab research focuses on understanding the ecological mechanisms controlling estuarine/coastal phytoplankton blooms, planktonic food web interactions, and effects of climatic and anthropogenic change on coastal ecosystems. Ample resources are available for field sampling, experimental (mesocosm laboratory) approaches, and or synthesis/modeling of existing data. The student will be housed at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (http://harteresearchinstitute.org/). Interested students should preferably hold a M.S. degree in ecology, marine science/oceanography, or a related field and possess strong quantitative skills. Potential applicants with only a B.S. degree should have at least 2 years of research experience in an area related to plankton or estuarine ecology and evidence of strong writing and presentation skills. Experience with GIS and/or spatial analysis will be viewed positively. The graduate assistantship will have an excellent stipend relative to the cost-of-living. To be considered for the position, please email me, Dr. Mike Wetz at michael.w...@tamucc.edu. Along with a letter of interest, please send your C.V., unofficial transcripts and GRE scores. For more information on my laboratory and research interests, please see: http://sci.tamucc.edu/~mwetz/. Screening of applications will begin on May 28th, 2011, but the position will remain open beyond this date until filled.
[ECOLOG-L] Public access to satellite imagery
Interior Announces Satellite Imagery of Earth Accessible to Public on ChangeMatters Website WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes announced that a new geospatial website, ChangeMatters, has made the Department of the Interior's satellite imagery of the world more easily accessible to the public. Developed by Esri, the site allows users to view the Global Land Survey (GLS) Landsat data developed by Interior's U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA, which spans a time period from 1975 to 2005. By viewing GLS satellite imagery throughout the world, anyone can monitor and map change between epochs resulting from events such as forest harvesting, urban growth, wildfires, floods, pest outbreaks, and drought. Landsat satellite imagery is one of the most valuable resources for Earth observation, stated Deputy Secretary Hayes. Esri's website achieves the kind of thing we had hoped to see happen by making USGS's Landsat dataset available to the public. The website will enable people and scientists around the world to more quickly and easily see how landscapes have changed over the years. Nearly four decades of continuously acquired data provide a remarkable window to our planet. The site brings the ability to monitor landscape change to internet users worldwide, said Esri President Jack Dangermond. We are excited to showcase this valuable government resource, using Esri's image-service technology, which allows rapid delivery of imagery over the web through dynamic mosaicing and the on-the-fly processing of a large number of images. The website leverages the 40-year U.S. government investment in the collection and archiving of continuous worldwide Landsat imagery for earth observation. USGS began providing Landsat imagery to the public for free two years ago. At 30- meter spatial resolution, Landsat imagery is useful for mapping regional trends in agriculture, climate change, wildlife habitat, forestry, regional planning, coastal zones, and national security, providing hundreds of millions of dollars in estimated value to the U.S. economy per year. Each Landsat satellite image sees more than humans can by collecting data in the infrared, as well as the visible (natural color) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The website permits users to roam the Earth, choose the decade they want to view, and pick from different combinations of Landsat bands, each highlighting a different application. For example, pest outbreaks can be monitored using the Healthy Vegetation band combination, and water flooding can be viewed using the Land/Water combination. The site also includes a change-detection tool that users can employ to view and map landscape change by decade. Several examples and tutorials are included in the site--such as wildfire damage in Grand Canyon National Park, bark beetle mortality in the Rocky Mountains, deforestation in Haiti, conversion from forests to agriculture in Paraguay, wetland loss in the Mississippi River delta, and the decline of water level in Lake Mead. This announcement complements Interior's Open Government Plan to incorporate transparency, collaboration and participation into the mission for an open and accountable government, said Assistant Secretary of Water and Science Anne Castle. We are very pleased that this Landsat data can be the platform for new innovative products that provide great value to many end users and are publicly available. In March 2011, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced plans to make the USGS the permanent manager of the Landsat series of Earth observation satellites, a recommendation endorsed by both the Obama and Bush Administrations. Landsat has become vital to the Nation's agricultural, water management, disaster response, and national security sectors, providing an estimated $935 million in value to the U.S. economy per year. Working closely with NASA to procure and build future satellites, a USGS-led program will best ensure the continued collection and maintenance of this important scientific resource. To find out more about USGS's Landsat program, please visit: http://landsat.usgs.gov/ The ChangeMatters website is available here: www.esri.com/landsat David W. Inouye Program Director Population and Community Ecology Cluster Division of Environmental Biology National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Blvd, Suite 635 Arlington, VA 22230 Phone: 703.292.8570 Fax: 703.292.9064 E-mail: dino...@nsf.gov
