Measuring Tree Properties and Responses Using Low-Cost Accelerometers

van Emmerik, Tim; Steele-Dunne, Susan; Hut, Rolf; Gentine, Pierre; Guerin, Marceau; Oliveira, Rafael; Wagner, Jim; Selker, John; van de Giesen, Nick

doi:10.3390/s17051098

Title: Measuring Tree Properties and Responses Using Low-Cost Accelerometers

Journal Article · Thu May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Sensors

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/s17051098· OSTI ID:1426864

van Emmerik, Tim ^[1]; Steele-Dunne, Susan ^[1]; Hut, Rolf ^[1]; Gentine, Pierre ^[2]; Guerin, Marceau ^[2]; Oliveira, Rafael ^[3]; Wagner, Jim ^[4]; Selker, John ^[5]; van de Giesen, Nick ^[1]

Delft Univ. of Technology (Netherlands)
Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
Univ. of Campinas (UNICAMP), Sao Paulo (Brazil)
Oregon Research Electronics, Tangent, OR (United States)
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)

Trees play a crucial role in the water, carbon and nitrogen cycle on local, regional and global scales. Understanding the exchange of momentum, heat, water, and CO 2 between trees and the atmosphere is important to assess the impact of drought, deforestation and climate change. Unfortunately, ground measurements of tree properties such as mass and canopy interception of precipitation are often expensive or difficult due to challenging environments. This paper aims to demonstrate the concept of using robust and affordable accelerometers to measure tree properties and responses. Tree sway is dependent on mass, canopy structure, drag coefficient, and wind forcing. By measuring tree acceleration, we can relate the tree motion to external forcing (e.g., wind, precipitation and related canopy interception) and tree physical properties (e.g., mass, elasticity). Using five months of acceleration data of 19 trees in the Brazilian Amazon, we show that the frequency spectrum of tree sway is related to mass, canopy interception of precipitation, and canopy–atmosphere turbulent exchange.

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Research Organization:: Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0011094

OSTI ID:: 1426864

Journal Information:: Sensors, Vol. 17, Issue 12; ISSN 1424-8220

Publisher:: MDPI AGCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 27 works

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Tree sway of 19 Amazon trees (Tim), Van Emmerik, T. H. M.; (Susan), Steele-Dunne, S. C.; (Rolf), Hut, R. W. TU Delft https://doi.org/10.4121/uuid:c9974180-aa9b-40b4-8dbb-06d5b1fce693	dataset	January 2018
Ideas and perspectives: Tree–atmosphere interaction responds to water-related stem variations van Emmerik, Tim; Steele-Dunne, Susan; Gentine, Pierre Biogeosciences, Vol. 15, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6439-2018	journal	January 2018
Ideas and perspectives: Tree-atmosphere interaction responds to water-related stem variations van Emmerik, Tim; Steele-Dunne, Susan; Gentine, Pierre Biogeosciences Discussions https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2018-289	posted_content	July 2018
Thermal Compensation of Low-Cost MEMS Accelerometers for Tilt Measurements Ruzza, Giuseppe; Guerriero, Luigi; Revellino, Paola Sensors, Vol. 18, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.3390/s18082536	journal	August 2018
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