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Environmental Sciences
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Department
of Environmental Sciences
University
of Virginia
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Site Description
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Aerial view of the 40-meter
tower rising above the forest canopy
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The
Virginia Forest Research Facility is located in Fluvanna County (MAP),
Virginia (37.91oN, 78.29oW, at 120 m above sea level). The
facility is located on property donated to the University of Virginia
Alumni Association for use by the faculty in the Department of Environmental
Sciences, the University of Virginia. The field
site represents a secondary growth, mixed deciduous forest in the
Piedmont of central Virginia. The forest is about 70 years old, and
average tree height is 20 m. The composition of forest is dominated by Acer,
Carya, Cornus, Fagus, Liriodendron,
Liquidambar, Platanus and Quercus.
A 40-meter scaffolding tower acts as the platform for instrumentation
used to make measurements within and above the forest canopy.
The terrain
around the tower is sufficiently flat to meet the requirements of eddy
covariance
and gradient diffusion techniques to estimate canopy fluxes of trace
gases.
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