Invited by Dr. ZHOU Xinhua, director of Ker Joint Laboratory for Forest Trace Gas and Isotope Flux Monitoring and Research (a lab co-established on May 15th, 2018 by the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Campbell Scientific Inc., referred to as ‘Ker Lab’ hereinafter), a group of five people from Campbell Scientific Inc. (the world-renowned instrument supplier in the fields of meteorology, hydrology and ecology), including Mr. Thomas Newman, Campbell Scientific Director for Asian Affairs, Ms. Emily Fu, head of Campbell Scientific China, Ms. Emma Feng, manager of the Department of Environmental Affairs of Campbell Scientific China, and Dr. ZHENG Ning, application scientist of Campbell Scientific China as well as member of Ker Lab, visited the Qingyuan Forest Ecosystem Research Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (referred to as “Qingyuan Station” hereinafter) on October 23, 2018.
Accompanied by YU Lizhong, deputy head of Qingyuan Station, the delegation visited the LiDAR monitoring network platform at the secondary forest plots, and inspected three sets of CO2/water flux/profile systems installed on the monitoring towers. This kind of system has real-time online data processing and automatic calibration functions. It is the most accurate system for water and carbon flux monitoring in complex underlying surface conditions. The system is also the first important research project completed by Ker Lab.
Dr. YU outlined the basic situation, scientific facilities and research projects of Qingyuan Station. Dr. ZHOU informed the visitors of the overall design framework of the flux tower monitoring system, the instruments equipped and researches carried out based on the flux monitoring system. During the visit, the technicians examined the operation of the flux/profile systems. The delegation also inspected the warming manipulation plots in the secondary forests.
The visitors’ impressions of Qingyuan Station were very positive. They hoped that the two sides could carry out in-depth cooperation in the fields of forest ecology and environmental monitoring. They stated that Campbell Scientific would further support the construction, research and experimental demonstration of Qingyuan station in various aspects, such as hardware development and procurement, software development, engineer technical training, etc.
