Climate and Soil Data at the Biomass Connect Demonstrator Hubs

As with all crops, the success, failure and overall yield of biomass crops is dependent on the weather. That’s why we have weather stations and soil dataloggers recording climate and soil data at each of our demonstrator hubs. This data will be fed into our research and used to determine their contribution to differences in crop yields between the various sites situated across the UK.

Specifically, we will be investigating the effect of temperature, solar radiation and rainfall/moisture on the biomass crops. We may also be able to compare wind data with documented wind damage to specific crops to see how well they cope with particular wind events. All of this is of increasing importance given the changing climate and increase in extreme weather events.

We record weather data at all eight of the demonstrator hubs using Campbell Scientific WxPro stations. The sensors in these stations record averages every 10 minutes and save that data to a data logger. The parameters recorded and logged are:

• Air temperature
• Relative Humidity
• Solar radiation
• Wind direction
• Windspeed
• Maximum gust wind speed
• Rainfall

For the soil data TOMST TMS-4 data loggers were installed at all eight of the demonstrator hubs. These loggers record soil temperature and soil moisture.

Originally the data from the weather stations and soil loggers were manually downloaded monthly.

In the spring of 2024 the weather stations at Newcastle University Cockle Park Farm, BGI and NIAB Headley Hall sites were upgraded. They were fitted with telemetry devices. These allow the data to be automatically uploaded to a cloud-based application.

In addition, extra soil sensors were added to the upgraded weather stations. These record

• Temperature
• Electrical conductivity
• Permeability
• Volumetric water content

Using the cloud-based system allows us to remotely visualise climate and soil parameters from the upgraded sites in near real-time. The Demonstrator Hub pages on the website therefore are now able to display a selection of the climate and soil data from the following sites:

Newcastle, Cockle Park Farm

BGI, Chesham

NIAB, Headley Hall

Please note: The live weather data presented on these pages are direct from the sensors on the weather station. The data have not been checked and may be inaccurate and reprocessed in the future. Gaps may appear in the data due to issues such as failed sensors, corrupted data-logger programs and low power system voltages at the weather stations. The Biomass Connect project assumes no responsibility for the data presented or for any loss which may arise (directly or indirectly) from reliance on the data.

Climate and soil data from these sensors that will be used in our research will be quality controlled for atypical values such as outliers and will also be evaluated against data from adjacent or nearby stations such as COSMOS monitoring sites and/or Met stations. This QC will allow us to validate the accuracy of the measurements prior to using it in any research outputs.