The Twitchell Alfalfa site is an alfalfa field owned by the state of California and leased to third parties for farming. The tower was installed on May 24, 2013. This site and the surrounding region are part of the San Joaquin - Sacramento River Delta drained beginning in the 1850's and subsequently used for agriculture. The field has been alfalfa for X years…., Crop rotation occurs every 5-6 years. The site is harvested by mowing and bailing several times per year. The field is fallow typically between November and February. The site is irrigated by periodically-flooded ditches surrounding the field. The site is irrigated by raising, and subsequently lowering the water table??

The research approach of the University of California, Berkeley Biometeorology Laboratory involves the coordinated use of experimental measurements and theoretical models to understand the physical, biological, and chemical processes that control trace gas fluxes between the biosphere and atmosphere and to quantify their temporal and spatial variations. The research objectives of the Mayberry Wetland, Twitchell Wetland, Sherman Island, Twitchell Island, Twitchell Alfalfa, and Twitchell Corn sites are as follows: 1) Describe differences in the fluxes of CO2, CH4, H2O, and energy between different land uses; 2) Understand the mechanisms controlling these fluxes; 3) Use ecosystem modeling to understand controls on these mechanisms under different environmental scenarios. These six sites were selected to capture a wide range of inundated conditions within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The research focuses on the eddy covariance technique to measure CH4, CO2, H2O, and energy fluxes and works to combine measurements of both net fluxes and partitioned fluxes in order to achieve a mechanistic understanding of the ecological controls on current and future carbon flux in the Delta.