4-9 September 2022, Bonn, Germany
EMS Annual Meeting Abstracts
Vol. 19, EMS2022-273, 2022, updated on 28 Jun 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-273
EMS Annual Meeting 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The new Irish Soil Moisture Observation Network – ISMON: an Umbrella for Integrating Several Recent Soil Moisture Measurements Initiatives

Klara Finkele1, Tamara Hochstrasser2,3, Paul N.C. Murphy3,4, Eve Daly5, Caren Jarmain6,7, Karl Richards8, Owen Fenton8, Thomas Cummins3,4, Matthew Saunders9, Paul M. Johnston10, Michael Bruen3,11,12, Kenneth A. Byrne6, Declan T. Delaney3,13, Rowan Fealy14, Stuart Green15, Suzanne Higgins16, Natalya Hunter Williams17, Gary Lanigan8, Tim McCarthy18, Ted McCormack17, Per-Erik Mellander8, Oliver Nicholson19, Ciaran Nugent20, Fiachra O'Loughlin21, Brian Tobin22,3, Pat Tuohy23, and Rebecca Whetton24
Klara Finkele et al.
  • 1Met Éireann, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland (klara.finkele@met.ie)
  • 2University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (tamara.hochstrasser@ucd.ie)
  • 3Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
  • 4UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (paul.murphy@ucd.ie thomas.cummins@ucd.ie)
  • 5School of Natural Sciences, National University Ireland Galway, Ireland (eve.daly@nuigalway.ie)
  • 6Department of Biological Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Limerick, Ireland. (Caren.Jarmain@ul.ie Ken.Byrne@ul.ie)
  • 7Centre for Geographical Analysis, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
  • 8Teagasc, Environmental Research Centre, Johnstown Castle, Wexford, Ireland. (Karl.Richards@teagasc.ie Owen.Fenton@teagasc.ie Gary.Lanigan@teagasc.ie PerErik.Mellander@teagasc.ie)
  • 9Botany Department, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland (SAUNDEM@tcd.ie)
  • 10Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, University of Dublin, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland (PJHNSTON@tcd.ie)
  • 11UCD School of Civil Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (michael.bruen@ucd.ie)
  • 12UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research, Ireland
  • 13School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (declan.delaney@ucd.ie)
  • 14Department of Geography, National University Ireland – Maynooth, Ireland (rowan.fealy@mu.ie)
  • 15Teagasc, Spatial Analysis, Ashtown Research Centre, Ashtown, Dublin 15, Ireland (Stuart.Green@teagasc.ie)
  • 16Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Belfast, UK (Suzanne.Higgins@afbini.gov.uk)
  • 17Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin 4, Ireland (Taly.HunterWilliams@gsi.ie Ted.McCormack@gsi.ie)
  • 18Department of Computer Science, National University Ireland – Maynooth, Ireland (Tim.McCarthy@mu.ie)
  • 19OPW, Trim, Co Meath, Ireland (oliver.nicholson@opw.ie)
  • 20Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, Forestry Division Ireland (Ciaran.Nugent@agriculture.gov.ie)
  • 21UCD School of Civil Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (Fiachra.oloughlin@ucd.ie)
  • 22UCD Forestry, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (brian.tobin@ucd.ie)
  • 23Teagasc, Animal and Grassland Research and Innovation Centre, Moorepark, Cork, Ireland (Patrick.Tuohy@teagasc.ie)
  • 24UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland (rebecca.whetton@ucd.ie)

Real-time soil moisture measurements are essential to manage for adaptive dynamic management of climate change adaptation and reduction of nutrient losses and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry. Soil moisture status influences crop growth, run-off, groundwater recharge, land surface-atmospheric exchange dynamics and greenhouse gas emissions as well as the risk of forest fire danger.  Here we present the new Irish Soil Moisture Observation Network (ISMON) as an umbrella to bring together several recently established long-term environmental observational networks. These are: 1) initiative of the AGMET group (agmet.ie), 2) COSMOS UK – Northern Ireland, 3) Teagasc NASCO (National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory) and 4) Terrain-AI, all of which include several different methodologies for measuring soil moisture at field scale. For instance, AGMET is installing novel cosmic ray neutron sensors which can provide field averaged soil moisture estimates (400m diameter) and Teagasc NASCO and Terrain AI are using Time Domain Reflectometry probes. Such networks are seen as necessary to resolving the problem of scale between point, field-based measurements and satellite-derived soil moisture products and are important in monitoring key biogeochemical processes that vary rapidly in time and space. In the initial phase of the implementation of the ISMON network, the current distribution of the stations in relation to the other networks are presented. The ISMON aims to represent the most relevant soil types, land cover, and regional climate regimes to corroborate direct measurements of soil moisture; it will adapt its design to improve the monitoring network as required. The ISMON will make a valuable contribution to, and expand the international soil moisture monitoring network. 

How to cite: Finkele, K., Hochstrasser, T., Murphy, P. N. C., Daly, E., Jarmain, C., Richards, K., Fenton, O., Cummins, T., Saunders, M., Johnston, P. M., Bruen, M., Byrne, K. A., Delaney, D. T., Fealy, R., Green, S., Higgins, S., Hunter Williams, N., Lanigan, G., McCarthy, T., McCormack, T., Mellander, P.-E., Nicholson, O., Nugent, C., O'Loughlin, F., Tobin, B., Tuohy, P., and Whetton, R.: The new Irish Soil Moisture Observation Network – ISMON: an Umbrella for Integrating Several Recent Soil Moisture Measurements Initiatives, EMS Annual Meeting 2022, Bonn, Germany, 5–9 Sep 2022, EMS2022-273, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2022-273, 2022.

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