Holm oak grove at sunset. Black silhouettes of trees against a blue-yellow sky.

MANIP fall maintenance trip October 24

Major maintenance, lysimeter hose replacement and Picarro commissioning for methane measurements

The MANIP experiment comprises 3 sites near the village of Majadas del Tietar, about 20 minutes from Plasencia, where there are 3 towers (north, main and south tower). Another mobile tower is located at a more arid site further south near the small town of Albuera, not far from Badajoz. The station is operated in collaboration with the Fundación CEAM, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the University of Extremadura and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry.

During this year's autumn trip, in addition to the usual maintenance work such as cleaning, calibration and reading out sensors, we primarily took care of the installation of a Picarro analyzer. This will measure methane and carbon dioxide in the coming growing season before moving to Arctic regions to take further measurements. Many thanks to Matthias Göckede for the temporary loan of the device.
We have also been working intensively on the maintenance and repair of the 3 lysimeters at the site. Pumps were repaired and replaced, countless hose connections renewed and hardware problems analyzed.
At all sites, the measuring towers were re-tensioned, all sensors were cleaned, the Vog protection was renewed, pumps were repaired, electrical connections were renewed, repaired analyzers were reattached and put back into operation, and broken soil respiration analyzers were identified.
Our colleague Savoyanne Lambert actively supported us on this trip and in return we assisted her with water potential measurements on holm oaks in Majadas, Albuera and Valencia.

 

T. El-Madany installing the intake filter for the Picarro analyzer, which will measure methane and carbon dioxide in the coming winter season.
Underground measuring device in an orange roundel manufactured by the company UGT. You can see a large silver-clad barrel with a diameter of approx. 1 meter and a height of 1.5 meters standing on a weighing frame. A number of hoses and cables come out of the barrel, which are connected to tensiometers and suction cups. Inside the weighing frame are pumps and a stainless steel water tank.
K. Hippler during pump maintenance of the profile system.
K. Hippler replacing one of many electrical sockets.
Tarek El-Madany installing the calibration device for Licor's eddy covariance system.
K. Hippler maintaining a radiation boom.
K. Hippler renewing the wiring on one of the radiometric towers.
S. Lambert during water potential measurements of holm oaks with the Scholander bomb.
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