All 2021 webinars

October 29, 12-1:30 PM Pacific Time: Year of Water webinar – Soil water potential and Soil water content

The Year of Water Committee is pleased to announce a new webinar series for the Ameriflux community to enhance discussion of several topics identified from the Year of Water kickoff meeting survey and discussion this past spring. The overall goal of these webinars is to provide background material and stimulate discussion around specific measurements related to water that are being made at many flux sites including: basics of making these measurements, and specific applications and uses of data in remote sensing and modeling.

Confirmed speakers:

1)      Kim Novick (University of Indiana)/Russ Scott (USADA-ARS, Southwest Watershed Research Center): “Emerging opportunities for in-situ soil water monitoring”
2)      Mike Cosh (USDA-ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory): “Soil moisture sensing and sparse networks”
3)      Andrew Fedlman (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center): “Remote sensing of soil/vegetation water content – Examples of what can be learned”
4)      Nina Raoult  (LSCE, Department of Modeling the Climate and Biogeochemical Cycles): “Using soil water potential and soil moisture to optimize land surface model performance”

This is a 90-minute webinar on zoom! You do not need a zoom account to join; you can join from the desktop client OR the web client. The webinar will be recorded and available on our youtube channel later.

Look for upcoming webinars in the spring:  Sap flux, and Water in Arid/Semi-Arid Environments

We are also open to suggestions for upcoming webinars, please let us know if you are interested in suggesting a topic or helping to organize one.

A recording of the webinar can be found here.

October 13, 1PM Pacific Time: Onboarding and Orientation for new sites

This webinar is aimed at new flux tower teams – those who joined the network in the last 1-3 years or are thinking about joining! Learn about the resources and advantages of being a member of the AmeriFlux network, and meet the team members who are available for tech and data support. Ask your burning questions and leave with the knowledge of what it means to be an AmeriFlux member site!

Download the slide deck here. A recording of the webinar can be found here.

August 25, 2 PM Pacific Time: Exploring modern timeseries analysis techniques with FLUXNET data

Speaker: John Zobitz, Augsburg University, MN

Curious about Granger Causality, transfer entropy, convergent cross mapping, and how to use them? Well so am I! These timeseries analysis tools provide powerful methods to analyze flux data and to probe causal effects between fluxes and environmental variables. This “how-to” seminar will provide a brief introduction to these techniques, build out a use-case scenario with sites from the FLUXNET 2015 dataset, and provide you with usable code (in R) to continue your own exploration with these techniques.

A recording of the webinar can be found here. Find John’s slides and code used in the presentation here.

July 20 1 PM Pacific Time: Early Career Researchers Spotlight 3/3: español

  • Samuel Villarreal (Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, México) – Fluxnet representativeness across Latin América / Representatividad de Fluxnet en Latinoamérica.
  • Susana Alvarado-Barrientos (Instituto de Ecología, México) – Ecohydrology and surface-atmosphere fluxes in non- water limited ecosystems: mangrove and cloud forest zone / Ecohidrología y flujos superficie-atmósfera en ecosistemas no limitados por agua: manglar y zona de bosque nuboso
  • Eli R. Perez-Ruiz (Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, México) – Seasonal Water-Carbon Dynamics in Dryland Landscapes of Southwestern USA and Northwestern Mexico.
  • Dulce Flores-Rentería (CINVESTAV Saltillo, México) – Experiences in the implementation of an Eddy covariance station in the semi-arid scrub of the Chihuahuan desert, Coahuila, México / Experiencias en la implementación de una estación de flujos turbulentos en el matorral xerófilo del Desierto Chihuahuense, Coahuila, México.

A recording of the webinar can be found here.

July 6 11AM Pacific Time: Early Career Researchers Spotlight 2/3: English presentations

Speakers:

  • Bhaskar Mitra, Texas A&M University
  • Lisa Haber, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Steve Kannenberg, University of Utah
  • André Santos, PPGEA/UFPR

A recording of the webinar can be found here.

June 29 2021, 11 AM Pacific Time: Early Career Researchers Spotlight 1/3: English presentations

  • Sophie Ruehr, UC Berkeley
  • Tonantzin Tarin, The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
  • Donovan Davis, Texas A&M University
  • Victor Hugo da Motta Paca, UFPA – Universidade Federal do Pará

A recording of the webinar can be found here.

May 19 2021, 2 PM Pacific Time: Fieldwork Safety (AMP Tech Team)

This webinar will be all about fieldwork safety. We invite all AmeriFlux stakeholders to participate to contribute to the discussion, although it is aimed at individuals who manage or conduct fieldwork. The main topic will be developing a site safety plan but we will include discussions on specific topics including working alone and working at height. We will encourage audience engagement by using small breakout rooms, so come prepared to interact.

Download the slide deck here. A recording of the webinar can be found here.

April 27 2021, 11 AM Pacific Time: Webinar for data users: how to use AmeriFlux data

AmeriFlux data has many uses, from understanding carbon cycling and ecophysiology to benchmarking models and remote sensing observations. In this webinar we will explore different approaches to using AmeriFlux data, and learn from the experiences of other data users and providers.

Download the slide deck here. A recording of the webinar can be found here.

March 23 2021, 11 AM Pacific Time: Submitting BADM in CSV format

BADM (Biological, Ancillary, Disturbance, and Metadata) can now be submitted using CSV files! In this webinar, we will describe the BADM CSV reporting format and how site teams can use new online BADM resources to customize their submission. Community members using BADM may also find this webinar helpful as we explain new online resources, which include BADM organization, definitions, and examples.

Download the slide deck here. A recording of the webinar can be found here.

January 27 2021, 2 PM Pacific Time: Post-submission data life cycle: FP-In to BASE publishing

This webinar is aimed at flux tower teams — those who plan to submit or have been submitting flux-met data to AmeriFlux. We will describe what happens to your flux-met data after you submit it for publication as the AmeriFlux BASE data product. We will highlight pointers for efficient data submission, including pitfalls to avoid. Additionally, we will explain the AmeriFlux QA/QC process and review schedules. Finally, we will talk briefly about versioning and DOIs as well as post-publishing tools for tracking downloads of your BASE data.

Download the slide deck here. A recording of the webinar can be found here.

January 8 2021, 10 AM Pacific Time: The New Site Visit Lite (AMP Tech Team)

The Site Visit webinar is designed for all tower teams and for people who would like to learn about the AmeriFlux network approach to site visits for measurement quality and inter-comparability.  The purpose of this webinar is to introduce the Site Visit 2.0 framework and get your feedback on the new remote-interaction components (also known as Site Visit Lite).  Please join the AmeriFlux Management Project’s Tech Team (Sebastien Biraud, Stephen Chan, Housen Chu, and Sigrid Dengel) for this presentation and discussion!

Background:  Site visits are a hallmark of the AmeriFlux network, where they are used to troubleshoot and improve data collection and to verify inter-comparability of observations from different towers. AmeriFlux is one of the only networks to have the roving towers and dedicated technical team for this.  The program has been highly successful in diagnosing biases, errors, and uncertainties associated with instruments, data acquisition, and data-processing.  However, AmeriFlux is growing rapidly, with more than 350 active sites. The current site-visit approach does not scale well and we are therefore implementing a new framework to assist site teams, called Site Visit 2.0.  As illustrated in the attached image, we are transitioning from the current model of two-week comprehensive site visits to a new model of (a) remote interaction, including in- depth checks of data processing and training on best practices for tower operation, (b) short-duration visits for troubleshooting and training—by the AMP site team or by new peer mentors, and (c) a limited number of comprehensive site visits that also catalyze mini-workshops onsite.

Download the slide deck here. A recording of the webinar can be found here.