The German Research Foundation (DFG) will fund the Collaborative Research Center CRC 1537 "ECOSENSE" from July 1, 2022. The SFB will receive about 10.5 million euros over four years for its interdisciplinary, detailed research on ecosystem processes in forests.
The team led by CRC spokespersons Prof. Dr. Ulrike Wallrabe, Professor of Microactuators at the Institute of Microsystems Engineering, and Prof. Dr. Christiane Werner, Professor of Ecosystem Physiology at the Institute of Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Freiburg, would like to be able to more precisely and quickly detect and predict critical changes in the forest ecosystem - which are occurring as a result of climate change.
Sensor Network Sends Measurement Data to Database in Real Time
To do so, the CRC is developing an autonomous, intelligent sensor network based on novel microsensors. Tailored to harsh forest environments, these will measure the spatio-temporal dynamics of ecosystem states and fluxes in a natural, complex-structured forest in a minimally invasive manner. "The measurement data will be transferred in real time to a sophisticated database and will be immediately available for process analysis, deep learning and improved simulation models for short- and medium-term predictions," Wallrabe explains. "Currently, there is a lack of suitable measurement, data and modeling tools for comprehensive quantification of change processes in real time at the highest spatio-temporal resolution. That's where we come in and develop mobile, easily deployable systems."
Read more at University of Freiburg
Photo Credit: Republica via Pixabay