The current practice for monitoring of subsurface plumes involves the collection of water samples from sparsely distributed monitoring wells and laboratory analysis to determine chemical concentrations. In most field situations, cost and time constraints limit the number of samples that could be collected and analyzed for continuous monitoring of large, transient plumes. With the development of wireless sensor networks ͑WSNs͒, that allow sensors to be incorporated into a distributed wireless communication and processing system, the potential exists to develop new, efficient, economical, large-scale subsurface data collection and monitoring methods. This paper presents a proof-of-concept study conducted in a two-dimensional synthetic aquifer constructed in an intermediate scale test tank to demonstrate the feasibility of using WSN for subsurface plume monitoring. The tank was packed to represent a heterogeneous aquifer, and a sodium bromide tracer was used to create a plume. A set of ten wireless sensor nodes ͑motes͒ equipped with conductivity probes to measure electrical conductivity formed the network. Software for automated data acquisition was developed and tested. Results of two experiments conducted using this test system are presented. The lessons learned from the first experiment were used to make modifications to the way the sensors were placed, how they were calibrated and how the sensors were interfaced with the data acquisition system. The findings are used to identify future research directions and issues that need to be addressed before field implementations of a WSN based data collection system for plume monitoring.

Irrigated croplands can be a major source of nitrate-N (NO-N) in groundwater due to leaching. In California, where high NO-N levels have been found in some areas of the Central Valley aquifer, the contribution from rice systems has not been determined. Nitrate leaching from rice systems was evaluated from soil cores (0-2 m), from the fate of N fertilizer in replicated microplots, and from about 145 regional groundwater wells. Soil NO-N concentrations were ≤3.3 mg kg (usually <1 mg kg) below the root zone (below 33 cm depth). In pore-water samples, NO-N was observed only below the root zone during the first 2 wk after the onset of flooding in either the growing season or the winter fallow period and was always ≤8.4 mg L. Fertilizer N accounted for 0 to 11.8% of NO-N in pore-water samples below the root zone. One year after application, based on an analysis of soil core samples, on average 2.5% of fertilizer N was recovered as N below the root zone (33-100 cm), possibly due to leaching in permeable soils or via preferential flow through cracks in heavy clay soils. Based on a regional assessment, groundwater samples from wells that are located in proximity to rice fields all had measured median NO-N and NO-N levels below 1 mg L. These results indicate that NO-N leaching from the majority of California rice systems poses little risk to groundwater under current crop management practices.

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