PASEO: PAN-AMERICAN SENSORS for ENVIRONMENTAL OBSERVATORIES –
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PASI
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
1. Introduction: Environmental Sensor Systems
Distributed, embedded environmental sensor systems are enabling scientists and engineers to
observe environmental systems with previously unattainable spatiotemporal resolution (Est04,
SEO04, Por05 Gol07, Mau07, Mon07). The vision of sensors coupled with "smart" networking,
and integrated with modeling and visualization tools by an overarching cyberinfrastructure is
currently being implemented in environmental observatory designs that will transform the way
we undertake investigations (see WATERS Network, NEON, IOOS, GLEON, and other
observatory initiatives). As this vision is realized, the next generation of ecologists, earth systems
scientists and environmental engineers will not simply be exposed to higher resolution data, but
empowered by computational thinking with respect to the capacity to analyze, visualize and
model observations in real-time. The two-fold motivation for this PASI effort is that (1) this
vision can only be realized via close collaboration between those who develop sensors system
technology and those who deploy the technology, and (2) such collaboration needs to be more
globally oriented to provide the needed understanding of the interrelations between human
activities, global health and biodiversity, and sustainability.
The proposed Pan-American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI) is referred to as the PanAmerican Sensors for Environmental Observatories (PASEO) Institute, which is the same
name as an NSF planning workshop convened in June 2007 (https://eng.ucmerced.edu/paseo/).
That workshop was conceived as a means to open discussion on Pan-American collaboration on
environmental observatory science and the technology to enable it. The goal of the participants
was to identify common science questions and technology needs, and to develop strategies for
promoting collaborative research and training in this domain.
1.1 Goals and Anticipated Outcomes. The goal of this PASI is to deliver an interdisciplinary
collaborative training experience to investigators less familiar with sensor system technology and
its application to environmental observational science. For the reasons expressed in the
following sections, it is critical that the training experience encompass both technology
developers and users in the context of non-trivial sensor system deployment test beds.
In this PASI, we anticipate engaging about 40 students with backgrounds ranging from lab-on-achip sensor development to field exploration in limnology. We will strive to facilitate group
learning by directing the students through a series of hands-on experiences in which different
subsets of the group are more expert than the others. Some of the immediate outcomes of the
student body makeup and these exercises are:

Students gain a basic understanding of sensor system principles ranging from transducer
development to deployment and networking in complex environmental systems to data
interpretation and modeling

The emergence of collaborative research efforts along interdisciplinary boundaries such as
sensor development, sensor field-testing, and sensor deployment-observatory science.
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1.2 Need for International, Interdisciplinary Sensor System Collaboration. The goal of this
PASI is to implement training which will promote international collaborative research in both
technology development and environmental research domains applying sensor systems. Solving
environmental problems of global importance will require information based on global
environmental observatories developed through genuine international collaboration. Such
networks will:

Provide information in the context of international decision-making and policy development
in the areas of resource management and biological conservation
 Train the next generation of boundary-free environmental and ecological technologydevelopers, scientists, and engineers
International coordination of environmental observatory efforts has been relatively strong in the
area of oceans, which is by nature an international field. However, coordination in observatory
development in terrestrial and freshwater settings has been less natural, perhaps due to the
tendency to observe these systems in the context of local to regional scales associated with
watersheds, ecosystems, and resource management boundaries. The PASEO short course was
conceived as a venue for exploring the potential benefits of comparative investigations of
terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal systems across international boundaries.
2. PASEO Organizing Committee and Lecturers
The PASEO PASI organizing committee was selected to give appropriate representation across
disciplines and internationally, and includes the following individuals:
(1) Thomas Harmon, PI, Professor, University of California, Merced – Dr. Harmon
organized the 2007 PASEO workshop organizer from the U.S. side, and is a co-PI in the NSF
Science & Technology Center called the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS). In
CENS, he leads the contaminant transport observation and management research thrust area. His
research is in the general domain of environmental systems, and extends from chemical sensor
development to observational deployments and modeling of soil, groundwater, and aquatic
systems.
(2) M. Cintia Piccolo, Professor and Director, Instituto Argentino de Oceanografia (IADO),
Bahía Blanca, Argentina – Dr. Piccolo hosted and participated in the 2007 PASEO workshop at
IADO. Her research involves a combination of embedded and remote sensing techniques aimed
at describing water quality in coastal estuaries and a network of saline lakes in central Argentina.
(3) William Kaiser, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles – Dr. Kaiser, a leading
developer of sensor system hardware and software, was a participant in the PASEO 2007
Workshop. His group is currently engaged in the development of the SensorKit (a highly
interoperable end-to-end sensor interfacing, data acquisition, and date storage system).
(4) Mario R. Gongora Rubio, Professor, Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de
São Paulo (IPT), São Paulo, Brazil – Dr. Gongora Rubio conducts research at the IPT
Microtechnology Lab. He participated in the PASEO 2007 Workshop, leading the breakout
group on emerging microfabrication techniques and their application to the development of key
water aquatic sensors.
2
(5) Kathleen Weathers, Ecologist, Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies, Millbrook, NY. Dr.
Weathers works is an ecologist at the Cary Institute, and also a member of the Global Lakes
Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON.org).
Each of the organizers will also participate as PASEO lecturers. Additional lecturers committed
to participating (see attached letters of support) are listed below:
(6) Gerardo Perillo, Professor and Vice-Director, Instituto Argentino de Oceanografia
(IADO), Bahía Blanca, Argentina – Dr. Gerardo co-organized and participated in the 2007
PASEO Workshop at IADO. His research includes the ecohydrology and geomorphology of
coastal estuaries and a salt marshes, and the development of observational technology in support
of this research.
(7) James Bonner, Professor and Director, Center for the Environment, Clarkson
University - Dr. Bonner participated in the 2007 workshop and is active in the planning and test
bedding of the WATERS Network. His primary research interests are in the field of coastal
processes and coastal observations.
(8) Eric Graham, Research Scientist, Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) Dr. Graham is a field biologists who has been working on CENS terrestrial sensor system
deployments associated with soil respiration observations with chemical sensors, and using
imagers as sensors in the contest of plant phenology.
(9) Jeffrey Goldman, Director of Program Development, Center for Embedded Networked
Sensing (CENS) – Dr. Goldman organized and coordinated the CENS Summer Course: Sensing
Technology for the Soil Environment, the course upon which the terrestrial sessions of the
proposed short course will be modeled. Prior to joining CENS, he served as NEON’s first
project manager, guiding the formation of the Project Office and the formal stages of
Observatory design.
(10) Daniel Lupi, Director of Research and Development Center for Telecommunication,
Electronics and Informatics, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI) – Dr. Lupi
was a co-organizer and participant in the 2007 PASEO Workshop, and will be providing input
and expertise with respect to the proposed sensor design and microfabrication content sessions.
(11) Phil Rundel, Distinguished Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology, UCLA – Dr. Rundel is active in the CENS terrestrial ecology group and also
collaborates on scientific aspects of the NEON initiative. He is also currently engaged
collaboratively with the Chilean Institute of Ecology & Biodiversity (IEB), which has recently
received a large award as a Center of Excellence for Science and Technology
3. Program Overview and Expected Outcomes
The proposed PASI experience is directed at an audience comprised of interdisciplinary scholars
(sensor developers, networking engineers, and scientific domain investigators). Its content is
intended to challenge all participants and to provide abundant opportunity for each the three
groups to lead in the learning process at various phases of the PASI experience. The plan is
organized to build the students’ level of achievement from basic knowledge of sensors and
sensor systems, to acquisition of the necessary skills to apply these systems to problems, and
finally opportunities to learn to analyze, synthesize and evaluate sensors and deployment
schemes and accompanying results in real systems (see Table 1).
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Table 1. PASEO educational plan with expected student achievement outcomes.
Expected outcomes: Student level of achievement ª
1
Subject by day
2
3
4
Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis
5
6
Synthesis Evaluation
Foundational
1. Embeddable sensors
2. Sensor systems/networks
3. Remote sensing
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Sensor Fabrication
4. Objectives and techniques
5. Fabrication, testing
x
Terrestrial Sensing
6. Orient and deploy
7. Deploy, analyze, evaluate
x
8. Group site reconnaissance
Lake Sensing
9. Objectives and techniques
10. Deploy, analyze, evaluate
x
Ecohydrology Sensing
11. Objectives and techniques
12. Deploy, analyze, evaluate
x
13. Report on test cases
ª Adapted from Bloom’s taxonomy for educational objectives [Blo56; And01]:
Knowledge - Ability to bring to mind the appropriate information (define, list, recognize and
describe properties and qualities of sensors, sensor systems, and environmental systems).
Comprehension - Ability to grasp the meaning of material (translate material from one form to
another (words to numbers), explain or summarize, predicting consequences or effects of using
various sensors/systems in different settings and contexts).
Application - Ability to apply learned material in new settings (creating a plan and applying
sensors or sensor systems to well-defined sampling objectives, organize and function in a
prescribed experiment, demonstrate skills).
Analysis - Ability to break down material into its component parts so that its organizational
structure may be understood; select the best system for the problem (identification of parts,
analysis of the relationship between parts, and recognition the response of sensor systems in the
context of environmental system models).
Synthesis – Ability to put parts together to form a new whole (using environmental
theory/models to produce a unique sampling plans, or other sets of abstract relations in the
context of developing or applying sensors or sensor systems in new and creative ways, adapting
to unexpected challenges).
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Evaluation – Ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose (comparing different
approaches to the same research objectives, appraising the significance of outcomes, selfassessing the value of the past effort and defining optimal follow-up efforts).
4. Science Rationale and Session Details
The PASEO training will be unique in its multiscale coverage of all aspects of environmental
observatory science, including (1) regional to local scale system assessment using remote
sensing products, (2) local to point-scale embedded observations using sensor systems, and (3)
fundamental sensor principles with an emphasis on developing sensors of maximum utility in
environmental systems.
This broad spectrum of instruction will require the mix of
interdisciplinary instructors, which we have assembled, as well as a similar mixture of students.
How we intend to recruit an optimal student population is discussed in section 6.
4.1 Foundational Sessions (Gongoro-Rubio, Kaiser, Perillo)
The first three days of the training will emphasize (1) sensors, (2) sensor systems, and (3) remote
sensing. The goal of the foundational sessions is provide the students from various disciplines
with basic knowledge and comprehension of these areas in terms of technology available now
and in the near-term. Each of the three sessions is described in more detail below.
Sensors Foundational Session – Sensors and actuators connect in situ (or embedded) sensing
systems to the environment. This session will discuss sensors that convert phenomena such as
fluid motion, chemical potential, or the presence of a pathogenic microorganism into an
electronic response. Actuators will also be discussed; these convert electrical signals into
mechanical responses, often to initiate or execute an automatic process, such as the collection
and preparation of an environmental sample. A diverse set of sensors is currently available for
networked environmental sensing and new sensors will become available in the future. However,
new sensor types and sensing approaches are still needed to monitor a continuously changing
spectrum of critical environmental properties [Gol07]. In many cases, actuators can bridge the
gap between sensors that exist now and those slated for development by efficiently collecting
environmental samples for conventional analysis in a laboratory. Coupling in situ sensing with
traditional laboratory analysis enabled by actuation is a powerful mechanism for protecting
human health and the environment. Thus, both sensors and actuators are important parts of the
discussion of environmental sensing systems.
Environmental sensors are usually categorized in terms of the physical, chemical, and biological
properties they sense. This session will emphasize the importance of assessing a sensor’s (1)
readiness for field deployments and (2) scalability to distributed environmental monitoring tasks
(i.e., small and inexpensive enough to scale up to many distributed systems). Physical sensors
relevant to water quality monitoring are generally
more field-ready and scalable than chemical sensors,
which are, in turn, substantially more field-ready and
scalable than biological sensors. The concluding
portions of this session lay the groundwork for the
development of novel nitrate and phosphate sensors,
which will be the subject of the hands-on sensor
fabrication portion of the short course (see Fig 1).
Fig 1 – Nitrate sensors fabricated on mechanical pencil
leads in a teaching lab setting at UC Merced [Ben05].
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Sensor Systems Foundational Session – This foundational session will focus on
hardware/software associated with sensor interfaces, data acquisition, and data transport. Its goal
is to bring the students to a sufficient level of knowledge and understanding of these systems to
be able to (1) appreciate exciting features in recently developed platforms (e.g., model-based
sensor sampling design), and (2) to learn to configure, collect data, and reconfigure sensor
systems in the subsequent exercises.
The last few years have seen a large growth in the number of small and medium-scale wireless
sensor network (WSN) deployments in environmental monitoring. The NSF Center for
Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) and the WSN research and engineering community at
large is beginning to overcome the two main challenges when attempting large-scale
deployments: a) enabling rapid deployment without massive investments in human resources and
b) end-to-end integration with technology that meets the engineering needs as well as the
scientific ones. To this end, complete system kits providing end-to-end sensor-to-data base
solutions are becoming available. Several of the PASEO organizers and lecturers are part of this
effort (Kaiser, Graham, Harmon, Goldman).
Specifically, we plan to provide training and practice on using a complete Environmental
Monitoring System Kit (see Fig 2), comprised of an NI CompactRIO (cRIO), associated sensors
& drivers, rugged mechanical packaging appropriate for outdoors environments and networking
infrastructure. The cRIO-based Environmental System Kit will seamlessly connect to the CENS
database repository--SensorBase [Cha06]--thereby providing end-to-end integration with CENS
software. A critical aspect of this project is providing state-of-the art technological innovations
combined with ease-of-use to domain experts. Therefore, user community development is an
integral part. To this end, we plan to provide training to the research community in annual
workshops and conferences, as well as other outreach-oriented activities. Our plan is to create an
initial group of early adopters in the research community by providing them with the required
guidance and support.
Fig 2 – Diagram of the
Environmental
Monitoring System Kit
end-to-end wireless
sensor network (WSN)
infrastructure, which
supports static and
robotic sensor nodes.
Remote
Sensing
Session – This session
will
introduce
the
students to the variety
of the panchromatic,
multispectral (MS) and
hyperspectral
(HS)
remote sensing data
products
that
are
currently available, and
to
the
recent
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applications of these products. Recently, investigators have provided evidence that a remote
sensing approach may lead to an efficient means of mapping water quality over scales sufficient
to identify clear links between human activities and watershed degradation [Ric96, Bra03,
Men06]. These data are already being collected in vast amounts.
In the session, image feature classification schemes will be introduced in support of identifying
spatial correlations between proximate land use/cover and water quality. For example, land use
classes (e.g., urban, agricultural, riparian), events (e.g., irrigation, tilling, harvesting) can be
extracted from images and used to develop spatial and temporal correlations between societal
policies/activities and water quality.
Given that much of the PASEO experience will involve hands-on experience with embedded
sensor systems, this remote sensing session will emphasize the approach (Fig 3) will focus on
fusion of remote sensing data, including that based on satellites, aircraft, and local radiometers
(e.g., watercraft-mounted) with environmentally embedded sensor system data across multiple
spatial and temporal scales. This approach will enable these young scientists (depending on their
discipline) to either (a) use embedded sensors systems to provide ground truth for their remote
sensing data and (b) use remote sensing data to gain a greater perspective on embedded sensor
observations. All of the students will gain an appreciation of the power of invoking observations
across multiple synoptic and
temporal scales, and the need for
interdisciplinary
collaborative
efforts to coordinate such
observations.
Fig 3 – Fusing embedded sensor
system and remote sensing
observations across multiple scales.
4.2 Sensor Fabrication Session
(organizers: Gongora-Rubio,
Lupi, Harmon)
Scientific Rationale – While
there are many novel sensor types
which could be investigated, key
nutrient species associated with
nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P)
were discussed extensively at the
PASEO workshop and were selected for emphasis here. Nitrogen or phosphorus often limit
production in environmental systems, and increases in nutrient loading over the past several
decades have led to chronic and widespread problems with eutrophication in coastal and inland
waters. Understanding the spatial and temporal extents of eutrophication requires understanding
how changing land-use patterns, nutrient transport and uptake in tributary waters, and climatic
variation interact to influence the nutrient loading to coastal waters.
The initial design of in situ nutrient sensors is aimed at measurement technology used to
characterize trophic status and loadings to aquatic systems. Once this new technology is
optimized, it can be tailored for future application in terrestrial systems as well. To conduct a
comprehensive material balance of critical nutrients, it is necessary to measure the key forms
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including total and biologically available constituents. However, given the scope of the
proposed PASEO experience, the training in this section will be limited to key ionic species:
nitrate and phosphate.
Sensor Fabrication Educational Session – Specific topics planned for the 2-day sensor
fabrication module are summarized in Table 2. Students will be trained in and explore the use of
low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) in the development of nitrate and phosphate sensor
systems. More specifically, students will explore the use of LTCC fabrication technology to
integrate potentiometric and amperometric nitrate sensors, which they will create using easy-tolearn techniques [Ben05]. LTCC has been used over the last twenty years for efficient
manufacturing of monolithic MCM-C packages and hybrid microelectronics circuitry. LTCC
technology enables the rapid construction of 3D structures, allowing the integration of different
stages of the analytical process into a so-called Lab-on-Package approach. LTCC devices are in
the meso-scale range, this size range (> 100 μm) is ideal for fabrication. Because no clean room
is needed, the LTCC approach is inexpensive when compared to most other semiconductor
fabrication techniques, and can be readily employed in the PASEO training sessions.
Table 2. Sensor fabrication sessions.
Subject
Sensor types
Sensor systems
Fabrication 1
Fabrication 2
Fabrication 3
Fabrication 4
Time
day 1, AM
day 2, AM
day 4, AM
day 4, PM
day 5, AM
day 5, PM
Content
State of technology for phys, chem., and bio-sensors
Sample preparation, microfluidics
LTCC materials and microsystems; hands-on training
LTCC microfluidics; lab-on-a-package
Hands-on training for fabrication and testing
Prototype sensor system testing and analysis of results
4.3 Terrestrial Session (Organizers: Graham, Rundel)
Scientific Rationale – Soil organisms are the catalysts that link elemental exchange among the
lithosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere. Understanding the rates of these exchanges, and the
sequestration of elements within any pool, is becoming increasingly crucial to understanding soil
processes and to sustainable management of local processes that are linked to the global climate.
Indeed, scaling may be the single most difficult task in the study of soil ecological processes
[All07]. The nutrient transformations that take place on the surfaces of soil particles, roots, and
soil microbes must be defined and scaled up for managing soil nutrient and energy
transformation at the ecosystem level. The greatest challenges for predicting soil processes are
learning what to measure and how frequently, and organizing individual measurements into units
that correspond to a remote-sensing pixel of information. Today, pixels at scales of meters to
kilometers provide composite estimates of the effects of complex soil processes, but these
composites are blind to the small-scale processes that contribute to larger-scale phenomena. To
fully understand these phenomena, we need to be able to measure soil processes in situ to
determine which organisms participate and, simultaneously, to aggregate measurements in
spatially and temporally meaningful ways.
A key driver of biogeochemical processes and the most readily measured soil parameter is the
energy stored in carbon (C) compounds. Soil C is derived largely from plant photosynthesis and
allocated to the soil either directly from plant roots or from leaf litter and decomposition. The
kinetics of soil processes have been estimated in terms of respiration rates, which depend on
temperature, water, and a number of other variables that vary at microscopic scales. To address
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these challenges of scale, researchers at the UC James Reserve have implemented a networked
array of sensors designed to measure small-scale soil dynamics and correlate these spatially and
temporally with larger-scale measurements [All07]; this array (see Fig 4) will be recreated the
terrestrial educational module for the proposed PASEO training program. The recreation will
take place just upland of the salt marsh areas described in section 4.5 (see Fig 6).
Terrestrial Sensor System Training – An existing soil sensing short course (July 2007)
developed by CENS will serve as the exemplar for this part of the instruction. This course was
offered at the location of the soil sensor array mentioned above, which included 10 weather
station “nodes” (including air temperature, relative humidity and photosynthetic active radiation
(PAR)) in an 80 x 10 m transect installed beneath a robotic canopy-scanning system known as
NIMS RD [Kai04]. Below-ground sensors included: three solid state CO2 sensors (Vaisala
Carbocap GMP220) installed at 2, 8, and 16 cm depths, coupled with soil temperature sensors
and three soil moisture sensors (Decagon Devices, Model EC-10) for a total of 30 sensors at the
site (3 per node x 10 nodes) that have been continuously working since November 2005. In the
PASI version of this module students will do the following:






Learn the basic principles underlying of soil respiration and nutrient cycling in soil
Understand the CENS sensor network scientific motivation and technology layout
Calibrate, install, and acquire data from two above-ground weather stations and two belowground moisture-temperature-CO2 sensor nodes
Comprehend and apply the theory for estimating CO2 fluxes and energy balances based on
their own data streams
Calibrate, install, and acquire data
while executing a controlled nitrate
release (modest levels) experiment
with fabricated nitrate soil sensors
developed in the previous sensor
fabrication session (note: backup
sensors will be on hand in the event
fabrication attempts are unsuccessful)
Connect their observations to
theoretical considerations and evaluate
potential strategies for improving their
sensor system deployments
Fig 4 – Terrestrial soil sensor arrays deployed
on the AMARRS transect at the UC James
Reserve, and which will be recreated during the PASEO terrestrial soils sensing session.
Table 3. Terrestrial soil sensing sessions.
Subject
Environmental systems
Environmental systems
Experimental design
CO2 flux, energy balances
Nitrate mass balance
Synthesis and evaluation
Time
day 3, AM
day 3, PM
day 6, AM
day 6, PM
day 7, AM
day 7, PM
Content
Research problems and objectives in soil systems
Sensors systems , typical deployments, sample results
Modeling CO2 fluxes and sensor system sampling design
Sensor installation, data transport, storage, visualization
Sensor, calibration, experiments: nitrate release
Experiments: statistical and model-based analyses
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4.4 Limnology Session (Organizers: Piccolo, Weathers)
Science rationale - Freshwater lakes provide a number of important ecosystem services
including supply of drinking water, support of biotic diversity, transportation of commercial
goods, and opportunity for recreation. They also play a critical role in “plumbing” the transport
and transformation of carbon from terrestrial systems to the atmosphere [Col07]. There is a clear
need to better understand how changes in land-use, human population density and distribution,
and climate interact to affect lake dynamics at local, regional, continental, and global scales.
Developing this understanding across such scales is a formidable challenge, in part because
ecological systems are characterized by high spatial and temporal variability [Kra03], non-linear
dynamics [Car99, Sch01), and coupled physical/biological processes [Ham97]. In lakes, this
complexity is manifested in phenomena such as sudden and short-lived algal blooms, changes in
frequency and response to disturbances such as mixing events caused by typhoons, and the interdependency of biota and biogeochemical processes [Car03].
Understanding how changes in land-use, human population, and climate interact with lake
dynamics at local, regional, continental, and global scales is one of the greatest challenges for
limnologists over the next decade. Developing this understanding at such scales is daunting, but
is made easier by (1) sensors capable of measuring key features of lakes, such as water
temperature, water movement, dissolved gases, pH, conductivity, and chlorophyll fluorescence
(2) advances in cyberinfrastructure, such as wireless sensor networks, which have led to the
increasing prevalence of in situ continuous measurements in lakes worldwide, and (3) an
increased emphasis on understanding of coupled physical and biological lake processes (e.g.,
how circulation patterns, internal waves and stream intrusions influence nutrient cycling, lakewide metabolism, and the wax and wane of algal blooms in lakes—see [Kra05]). The limnology
sessions of the proposed PASI will focus on educating and training students in these three areas.
Limnology Sensors System Training – This session will take place at Los Chilenos Lagoon,
near Bahia Blanca, a local eutrophic lake identified by co-organizers Piccolo and Perillo. This
session will emphasize multi-parameter water quality sonde deployments over time and space in
lakes (YSI and Hach/Hydrolab Models). The sondes are equipped with sensors for temperature,
salinity (as specific conductance), dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll fluorescence. Water
velocity vectors will be obtained by acoustic Doppler velocity (ADV) sensors (Sontek/YSI
Argonaut). Weather station nodes will
also be used in this module to inform
solar and wind-based forcing of lake
processes like photosynthesis, mixing,
and aeration. Sondes will be deployed
via small boats and buoys (see Fig 5) in
lake locations selected from remote
sensing imagery analyzed during (Day
3) of the short course.
Fig 5 – Meteorological and water quality
sensor buoy platform launched at Lake
Sunapee, New Hampshire (GLEON.org).
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In addition to manually deploying the sensors, this module will include instruction and practice
in deploying the sondes robotically using the NIMS system [Har07]. This system will enable the
students to adaptively sample in a vertical plane in a lake using lake simulation models to inform
the sampling. Overall the limnology module the enable the students to:






Know the physical, chemical and biological principles underlying primary production in
lakes
Comprehend the multi-parameter sonde components (sensors, data acquisition and transport)
Apply (calibrate and install) sensors, and acquire data from water quality and velocity
sensors at varying depths in a lake
Comprehend and apply lake simulation models and used them to guide multi-dimensional
robotic sampling
(Analogous to the terrestrial module) execute a controlled nitrate release (modest levels)
experiment with fabricated nitrate soil sensors developed in the previous sensor fabrication
session
Connect their observations to theoretical considerations and evaluate potential strategies for
improving their sensor system deployments
Table 4. Lake sensing schedule.
Subject
Time
Environmental systems
Environmental systems
Sampling design
Thermocline mapping, mixing
Algae, respiration, nitrate
Synthesis, evaluation
day 3, AM
day 3, PM
day 9, AM
day 9, PM
day 10, AM
day 10, PM
Content
Research problems and objectives in lakes
Sensors systems , typical deployments, sample results
Lake models
Sensor installation and data acquisition
Experiments: adaptive algae tracking; nitrate release
Experiments: statistical and model-based analyses
4.5 Ecohydrology Session (Organizers: Perillo, Bonner, Kaiser)
Scientific Rationale – Ecohydrology involves the study of feedbacks between ecosystems and
their inhabitants and the hydrologic processes that sculpt their habitat. In the Bahía Blanca
intertidal zones, for example, interactions between a halophytic plant (Sarcocornia perennis) and
a burrowing crab (Chasmagnathus granulate) combine with hydrodynamic and geomorphologic
conditions to produce an unexpected and unique physical-chemical-biological tidal creek
formation process [Per03, Per05]. Tidal creeks and channels in coastal areas are the arteries and
veins of a major circulatory system pumped by the tides. Along these channels (see Fig 6) there
is a continuous flow of water, sediments and nutrients and the channels play a major role in the
evolution and function of wetlands, and the Sarcocornia-Chasmagnathus “feedback loop” is
central to the formation and morphology of these channels [Esc07]. As this example suggests,
ecohydrologic interactions are extremely complex and difficult to extract from the
spatiotemporal fluctuations in these systems. At the same time, human pressures, which are
typically most intense on the coastal margin, are likely impacting these interactions whether
through land surface engineering, sediment erosion and transport, and increased pollutant and
nutrient inputs.
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Fig 6 - Photographs depicting the
different stages of the formation
of creeks in the Bahía Blanca
Estuary salt marsh: a) an
example of a circle inundated by
water; b) an example of a typical
circle showing an outer ring with
Salicornia ambigua plants and
the center covered by crab holes;
c) a typical hole formed by the
crumbling of the upper surface
undermined by crab action; d)
and e) examples of newly
developed tidal creeks advancing
headward [after Per03].
Understanding how changes in
land-use, human population,
and
climate
impact
ecohydrology is key to the preservation of sensitive and biologically diverse coastal ecosystems.
As with lakes, developing this understanding is daunting, but is made easier by (1) increasing
sensors capabilities for measuring not only physical and chemical water properties, but
ecosystem properties (e.g, via automated cameras), (2) advances in cyberinfrastructure, which
enable and aggregating sensor responses to create virtual sensors for measuring habitat responses
to perturbations continuously, and (3) as with lakes, an increased emphasis on understanding of
coupled physical and biological dynamics (the very essence of ecohydrology).
The
ecohydrology sessions of the proposed PASI will focus on educating and training students in
these three areas.
Ecohydrology Sensors System Training – In this session emphasis will shift to studying an
ecosystem in the context of water observations. Again, multi-parameter water quality sonde and
ADV sensors will be deployed via the NIMS system. However, in this instance, where treading
upon the habitat will disrupt the topic of study, the NIMS system will be suspended in the
airspace above the objective zone and deliver sensors vertically. In addition, an imaging sensor
platform known as Cyclops will be used to visually observe the habitat below the NIMS device
[Kai04; Rah05].
This session will take place in the Bahía Blanca estuarine marshes described by Perillo and
colleagues [Per03, 05; Esc07], and will further examine the ecohydrology of the halophytic
plant (Sarcocornia perennis) and a burrowing crab (Chasmagnathus granulate) in the context of
tidal creek formation. In effect, students will be employing their newly learned skills to design a
better way of observing this system. The ecohydrology module the enable the students to:


Know the physical, chemical and biological principles underlying the ecohydrology problem
under investigation
Gain further experience with the multi-parameter sonde components (sensors, data
acquisition and transport)
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


Comprehend and apply (calibrate and install) optical (Cyclops) sensors above the ecosystems
being studied and observed changes in vegetation, water clarity, and animal activity
Formulate and analyze their data with simple ecological models aimed at linking animal
behavior to water motion and quality parameters
Connect their observations to theoretical considerations and evaluate potential strategies for
improving their sensor system deployment
Subject
Environmental systems
Environmental systems
Sampling design
Water motion and images
Water quality and images
Synthesis, evaluation
Table 5. Ecohydrology session schedule.
Time
Content
day 3, AM
day 3, PM
day 11, AM
day 11, PM
day 12, AM
day 12, PM
Research problems and objectives in estuarine marshes
Sensors systems , typical deployments, sample results
Posing hypotheses re: water motion/quality/habitat
Experiments: robotic ADV data and images
Experiments: robotic water quality data and images
Experiments: statistical and model-based data analyses
5. PASEO Educational Assessment
Assessment of the PASEO short course will consist of short-term and long-term components:
1) Student Course Evaluations – A survey of the students will be given on the final day of the
short course that will probe participants’ perception of the outcomes of the course compared
to those summarized in Table 1. The survey will include questions focusing on the
effectiveness and approachability of the course lecturers and hands-on activity facilitators
2) PASEO Information Management Website – The existing PASEO website will be
expanded to include lecture materials and links to the data captured during the short course
(stored in SensorBase, which is maintained by the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing,
CENS). The short course organizing committee will track usage of these data and continued
student interactions on the website as successful outcome indicators.
3) Post-PASEO Student Survey – Roughly six months after the short course, PASEO students
will be asked to participate in an online survey that probes the long-term perception of the
educational outcomes, what aspects of the course have proven useful during the interim
period.
The results from these three assessment vehicles will be published on the PASEO website, in the
final report to NSF, and disseminated to the key environmental observatory network efforts
outlined in section 1 of this proposal.
6. PASEO Student Recruitment and Selection
Advertisement and Recruitment. Prospective students for the PASEO short course will be
identified through a combination of open advertisement and recruitment in the following U.S.
organizations (with website postings wherever possible): Center for Embedded Networked
Sensing (CENS), Water and Environmental Research Systems (WATERS) Network, Integrated
and Sustained Ocean Observatories (IOOS), Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Networks
(ORION), Ocean Observatory Initiative (OOI), the National Ecological Observatory Network
(NEON), and the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON). U.S. PASEO
organizers and lecturers will distribute an announcements and links to the advertisements via
email lists associated with their professional societies.
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To attract student applicants from other Western Hemisphere countries, organizers and
participants will also advertise through the following organizations and agencies, posting
information on websites where this is allowed: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas
y Técnicas (CONICET, Argentina), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial (INTI,
Argentina), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil),
Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo (IPT, Brazil), Comisión Nacional de
Investigación en Ciencia y Tecnología (CONICYT, Chile), the RedCLARA (Cooperatión Latino
Americana de Redes Avanzadas), as well as NEPTUNE and GEODIDE (Canada).
Student Application and Selection. Prospective students will be primarily graduate students,
postdoctoral scholars, and early career faculty and other researchers who would benefit from the
educational plan at this stage of their careers. Prospective students will apply by sending an
electronic application to the organizing committee. The applications will include the applicant’s
curriculum vita and a research statement describing (1) the nature and current status of their
current research, (2) their reasons for wanting to participate, (3) experience or skills that may be
relevant to the short course (e.g., ability to assist in certain sessions), and (4) other considerations
(e.g., language skills, disabilities or accessibility issues).
The application period will begin two weeks after NSF’s PASI awards announcement and close
about 4 months prior to the short course. The organizing committee will evaluate the applicant
pool and select 30 to 40 students using the following criteria:
Nationality – The targeted breakdown is 50% U.S., 50% non-U.S., with no more than 25%
representation from any non-U.S. nation, as per NSF PASI guidelines.
Discipline Diversity – The targeted distribution of disciplines will be 20% each for sensor
fabrication technology, sensor system/networking technology, terrestrial ecology, limnology, and
ecohydrology.
Research statement and CV – Excellence in prior or potential for excellence in future research
will be a key criterion in choosing between candidates. The relevance of the PASEO mission to
the candidate’s current or planned research pathway will be included as part of this evaluation.
Gender and ethnic diversity – It will be a priority to create as diverse a pool of students as
possible.
7. PASEO Timing, Venue and Logistics
Timing and Venue. The proposed PASEO would take place in January or February 2009 to take
advantage summer conditions. The central location of the short course will be the Instituto
Argentino de Oceanografia (IADO) in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, the same institute that hosted
the 2007 PASEO workshop. IADO has an excellent auditorium for lecture portions of the
proposed short course and laboratories in which to hold the sensor fabrication sessions.
Logistics. Participants will be housed double-occupancy at a hotel located in downtown Bahía
Blanca. Breakfast will be at the hotel, lunches will be served at IADO or box lunches will be
provided for the outdoor activities. Dinners will be in town at various restaurants.
The estuary and terrestrial test case sites are located a few minutes from IADO, with access by
IADO research vessels, which are available to the short course at fuel costs. The lake site, Los
Chilenos Lagoon, is located about 85 km from Bahía Blanca.Two vans will be rented to transport
equipment to and from the hands-on research sessions, and one passenger bus will be chartered
for transporting students to and from their hotel to IADO and the outdoor research sessions.
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7. Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts
The proposed PASI short course will be transformative by creating a cadre of scientists and
engineers who are not only trained in the state-of-technology for environmental observations but
primed for embarking on international collaborative research in both technology development
and environmental research domains applying environmental sensor systems. International
coordination of environmental observatory efforts has been relatively strong in the area of oceans,
which is by nature an international field. However, coordination in observatory development in
terrestrial and freshwater settings has been less natural, perhaps due to the tendency to observe
these systems in the context of local to regional scales associated with watersheds, ecosystems,
and resource management boundaries.
Solving environmental problems of global importance will require information based on global
environmental observatories developed through genuine international collaboration. Such
networks will provide information in the context of international decision-making and policy
development in the areas of resource management and biological conservation. Future
interactions and researcher/student exchanges between the PASEO participants and their
networks of colleagues could result in long-term Pan-American collaborative research employing
environmental observatories. Geography and climate issues in South America and North
America are attractive for efficient comparative studies focusing on science questions and
engineering problems of mutual interest (for example, scientists can collaboratively study
climate effects through two sets of seasons in geographically analogous regions, such as Chile
and California).
Broader impacts of this short course will train a significant number of the next generation of
boundary-free environmental and ecological technology-developers, scientists, and engineers.
This type of effort, if repeated frequently enough, would have the effect of creating a
“community” of users and developers that could come together (perhaps annually). Recurrent,
meaningful interactions are essential to build teams of people to do the implicit longer-term
research that is desirable as one of the by-products.
In terms of more tangible near-term impacts, development of training materials that can be
reused in other context via U.S. research organizations like CENS and GLEON, and by similar
organizations in other nations. Reuse may be directly by individuals who could not participate
but also used by organizations (e.g., CENS and GLEON) to tackle the broader issue of training
scientists and engineers in other geographic locations and other types of settings.
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