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Douglas-Biochemistry Network

Coordination : Champenoux, 54280, France

Sites located in metropolitan France

https://www6.nancy.inrae.fr/bef/Moyens-analytiques/Douglas

The Douglas-BGC network includes around 30 experimental sites, 11 of which are instrumented for continuous monitoring of water flows main mineral contents at the forest-plot scale.

All the sites have been described in terms of land use history, forest stands, herbaceous vegetation, soils and climate. Since 2013, the monitoring carried out at the 11 instrumented sites includes: continuous monitoring of soil moisture, litterfall, rainfall, trunk runoff and the chemical composition of soil solutions collected at 15 and 60 cm depths with porous filter candles. For each liquid sample, pH and concentrations of anions (F, NO2, NO3, SO4, CL, H2PO4), cations (NH4) and total elements (Si, Al, Fe, S, P, K, Ca, Na, Mg, Mn) are measured. At all sites, soil physical and chemical properties and concentrations of the main element reserve in the stand biomass are determined. Concerning the nitrogen cycle, mineralization and potential nitrification are measured at all sites; in addition, every two months for one year, NO3 and NH4 soil fluxes were measured with anionic and cationic resinsat the 11 instrumented sites. All data are recorded in a database, which includes raw and processed data as well as metadata.

Data collected from the all sites is centralized and available for use in collaborative projects.

The network is managed by a research engineer and a research officer (for the scientific aspects) and a design engineer (for the technical aspects, including database management) from the BEF (Biogeochemistry of forest ecosystems INRAE Grand Est Nancy).

Sample collection is carried out by volunteers, forest owners, ONF and CRPF staff, and occasionally by BEF staff. A design engineer and a technician carry out sample preparation and analysis at the BEF laboratory.

The work consists in collecting soil and plant samples, and pre-treating and analysing samples. The network’s approach is to interact as much as possible with the user(s) to discuss all aspects of their project. This allows the team to treat each request individually and to adapt their support to the request. The team mainly offers scientific, technical and logistical support. It is possible to use ANAEE-France's mobile platform (MPOETE) as additional support for field campaigns, experiments and data acquisition.

Acces conditions are defined according to each research project or application. The network provides access to the Douglas fir sites and all associated data. We also provide access to laboratory space for sample preparation and processing. Access cost is defined according to each research project or request.

The 11 instrumented sites are all equipped with Decagon soil moisture probes (10 probes per site: 5 at -15cm, 5 at -60cm), porous fileter candles (10 candles per site: 5 repeats at -15cm, 5 repeats at -60cm), a vacuum pump, litter collectors (4 per site), rainfall collectors (4 per site) and trunk runoff collectors (4 per site).