A field installation for automatic recording of micro‐environmental gradients

Abstract

A laboratory has been constructed in the field with a design sufficiently basic and flexible to permit correlation of micro‐environmental conditions with distribution and abundance in space and time of a wide variety of plants and animals. Two 50‐ft wooden towers, located at ecological extremes of a dense woodland and an open field, have been equipped with instruments for automatic recording of micro‐environmental gradients. Aminco‐Dunmore‐type electric humidity and temperature indicators have been placed at the 0, 3, 6, 15 and 50 ft levels, and temperature elements only at the 1, 16, 18 and 36 inch soil depths, each complete set being fed into a 16‐point strip recorder. Special weather shields have been designed for the humidity‐temperature indicators. Recording anemometers are at the 3 and 50 ft levels, and recording rain and surface water level gages are near the base of each tower. Portable instruments provide for supplementary environmental data on radiation, light, wind, temperature and humidity.

Reactions of Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say to Moisture, Temperature, and Light

“…Only with these kinds of data in hand is there a reasonable expectation for understanding the critical conditions or combination of conditions operating to control given mosquito or other insect populations in nature. Another paper (Platt 1957) gives a detailed account of the far more accurate field instruments subsequently installed for determining and recording environmental data. All of the field work has been carried out in a special experimental area at the Emory University Field Station, located in the Upper Coastal Plain of southwest Georgia.…”

“…An analysis of the microenvironmental data obtained for this area for the first two years of operation has been made by Platt & Goodwin (unpublished). Another paper (Platt 1957) gives a detailed account of the far more accurate field instruments subsequently installed for determining and recording environmental data.…”