BtM, a Low-cost Open-source Datalogger to Estimate the Water Content of Nonvascular Cryptogams

Communities of nonvascular cryptogams, such as mosses or lichens, are an important part of the Earth's biodiversity, contributing to theregulation of the carbon and nitrogen cycles in many ecosystems. Being poikilohydric organisms, they do not actively control their internal watercontent and ne...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Leo, María, Lareo, Ángel, García Saura, Carlos, Hortal, Joaquín, Medina, Nagore G.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/224080
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/224080
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Environmental Sciences
Issue 145
Conductance measurement
Cryptogams
Water content
Bryophyte
Lichen
Conductivity
Impedance
Descripción
Sumario:Communities of nonvascular cryptogams, such as mosses or lichens, are an important part of the Earth's biodiversity, contributing to theregulation of the carbon and nitrogen cycles in many ecosystems. Being poikilohydric organisms, they do not actively control their internal watercontent and need a humid environment to activate their metabolism. Therefore, studying water relationships of nonvascular cryptogams iscrucial to understand both their diversity patterns and their functions in the ecosystems. We present the BtM datalogger, a low-cost open-sourceplatform for the study of the water content of nonvascular cryptogams. The datalogger is designed to measure ambient temperature, humidity,and conductance from up to eight samples simultaneously. We provide a design for a printed circuit board (PCB), a detailed protocol to assemblethe components, and the required source code. All this makes the assembly of the BtM datalogger accessible to any research group, even tothose without previous specialized knowledge. Therefore, the design presented here has the potential to help popularize the use of this type ofdevice among ecologists and field biologists.