New Automated Soil Co2 Exchange System

ADC BioScientific (UK) has introduced a new, Automated Soil CO2 Exchange
System (ACE).
Natural biomass respiration from soil is a major carbon source.
Understanding soil flux and its relationship with other sources and sinks within the carbon cycle are currently subject to increasing scientific scrutiny in relation to global climatic change.
ACE is designed for the long-term, unattended monitoring of soil flux.
The automated design of the ACE Station allows the area of soil being
analysed to be exposed to ambient conditions between measurement cycles.
Each ACE Station features a highly accurate CO2 infrared gas analyser
housed directly inside the soil chamber assembly. This design ensures the fastest possible response times to CO2 changes, avoids potential gas “hang ups” in long lengths of tubing and is very power efficient as there is no requirement to pump gas from a soil chamber to a separate analyser.
Each ACE Station is a complete, fully integrated soil flux system comprising the soil chamber and arm that pivots from the control panel.
The ACE Station is easy to set up and program in either an Open or a
Closed mode configuration. Sensors for measuring PAR, soil moisture and soil temperature may also be connected to each ACE Station.
Up to 30 ACE Stations can be connected together in an ACE Network that can cover a 200m diameter experimental area.
This powerful and sophisticated research system will prove an invaluable tool in enhancing our understanding of a host of global,
environmental change issues.