PELLSTON, Mich. — The University of Michigan Biological Station doubled its AmeriFlux footprint this year, joining Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and the University of Colorado Boulder as the first three partners in the environmental observation network that spans North, South and Central America to deploy “eddy covariance” research infrastructure on the Great Lakes.
As part of a project funded by the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS), UMBS Senior Research Specialist John Lenters made equipment installations and sensor upgrades to two research towers that UMBS helps maintain on Lake Superior to make the connection.
This spring, the site at Granite Island Light Station near Marquette, Mich., started sending real-time data to AmeriFlux, and final upgrades to instrumentation at the more distant Stannard Rock Lighthouse were completed on Aug. 21. It also is now streaming real-time data, and this dataset will be added to the AmeriFlux archive that was initiated by ECCC in 2024.
“It’s ambitious for one location to be running four flux towers, but UMBS is in a strong position to build out our long-term program to cover more landscape types,” said Lenters, who spoke at the GLOS 20th anniversary meeting in Ann Arbor on July 9 about the successful project.
“These additional devices expand our footprint beyond the forests of Pellston and the shore of Douglas Lake to include the Great Lakes, which is critical for monitoring things like weather data, carbon dioxide levels, and lake evaporation. A lot of what we’re learning about Great Lakes evaporation impacts ice cover, water temperature, and lake levels.”
The sites at Stannard Rock Lighthouse and Granite Island Light Station also are part of the Great Lakes Evaporation Network (GLEN), which was formed nearly two decades ago. Stannard Rock Lighthouse is owned by the Superior Watershed Partnership, and the weather station at Granite Island is operated by UMBS, in cooperation with Northern Michigan University.
Lenters installed SmartFlux devices manufactured by LI-COR to speed and automate the sensors so that the data no longer have to undergo significant and tedious “post-processing” before archival by AmeriFlux.
“For the first time in the 17-year history of GLEN, we now have fully-corrected, half-hourly fluxes of heat, carbon dioxide, and moisture streaming from these sites in real time,” Lenters said. “We owe a big thanks to GLOS for funding this project and to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for providing boat support to both of these GLEN sites over the past few years. Their contributions have been invaluable.”
Contributing to the global study of climate change biology, AmeriFlux towers measure ecosystem carbon dioxide, water and energy fluxes as well as other exchanges between the land surface and atmosphere. Its data are downloaded every day by scientists to understand how ecosystems respond to climate change and to improve the performance of models that predict climate change and interpret satellite-borne observations on the state of our ecosystem.
The international network connects research on field sites representing major climate and ecological biomes, including tundra, grasslands, savanna, crops, and conifer, deciduous, and tropical forests.
UMBS is one of AmeriFlux’s Core Sites where ongoing observations have been updated regularly for more than 25 years.
The main 150-foot AmeriFlux tower at UMBS, which is one of two AmeriFlux units standing on the more than 10,000 forested acres between Douglas and Burt Lakes, provides one of the highest quality long-term datasets on forest carbon dynamics in the world.
All four AmeriFlux towers, including the two new units on the Great Lakes, have their own real-time dashboards that are publicly accessible.
“Open access to reliable, real-time data is critical for scientists focused on a wide variety of areas of study ranging from changing winters to forest carbon storage,” said Dr. Aimée Classen, director of UMBS. “We’ve been a core AmeriFlux site for a quarter of a century, and we’re proud to double down and meet emerging challenges.”
Showing the power and value of network science, scientists at the research and teaching campus in northern Michigan recently co-authored several papers in scientific journals leveraging UMBS AmeriFlux work. Access the research papers in Nature Scientific Data and Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.
The University of Michigan Biological Station — the largest of U-M's campuses — is one of the nation's largest and longest continuously operating field research stations.
Founded in 1909, the Biological Station supports long-term research and education. It is where students and scientists from across the globe live and work as a community to learn from the place.
The University of Michigan Biological Station serves as a gathering place to learn from the natural world, advance research and education, and inspire action. We leverage over a century of research and transformative experiences to drive discoveries and solutions to benefit Michigan and beyond.
Subscribe to the UMBS monthly e-newsletter and follow the field station on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter).
