Our ability to collect ‘critical-to-know’ data of the right type at the right place and time is key to improving our understanding of the underlying mechanisms that regulate ecosystem processes, from microbial to ecosystem scales. 

Modern technological advancements have opened up a wide range of new advanced sensing possibilities for ecosystem processes. We are developing novel-sensing technologies and capabilities to quantify interactions between key environmental factors and biological functioning within ecosystems across scales, from laboratory to testbed to the field. 

CESD researchers have developed a fabricated ecosystem in order to better understand how interacting processes like plant growth, water availability, and microbial nutrient cycling are changed under real-world, but closely monitored, conditions. The testbed allows researchers to observe processes that can be difficult to analyze in nature due to site scale, technological limitations, and the unpredictability associated with natural conditions.