Time-lapse monitoring with drone-borne Ground-Penetrating Radar unveils spatiotemporal moisture dynamics in peatland root zone
(2024) The Sixth Global Proximal Soil Sensing Workshop — Location: Gent (2024.October.14AD)
Files
No attached file found for this publication.
Details
- Authors
Henrion, Maud 
Thami, Adil
- Abstract
- Peatland’s hydrology is of primary importance since their water status significantly influences carbon decomposition and, consequently, carbon fluxes. The degradation of peatlands via drainage is typically causing a release of CO2. Therefore, characterizing peatland moisture status and monitoring its spatial and temporal variability are crucial. Current methods employed for its study usually range from small-scale probes to large-scale satellite observations. This study aims to bridge the gap by employing drone-borne Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) to map peatland surface moisture at an intermediate scale. The objective is to identify hot spots and hot moments in soil hydrology and uncover the drivers of soil moisture changes. We are conducting drone-borne GPR measurements every 2 to 4 weeks from May 2023 to September 2024 on 4.5 ha of a previously drained peatland. We use gprSense, a specialized radar and software system developed for automated data acquisition and full-wave inversion. These measurements are compared with Meter Teros12 soil moisture sensors and piezometers positioned at strategic positions along a toposequence for on-ground validation. First results indicate that the method effectively tracks temporal changes in soil moisture in a qualitatively comparable manner to on-ground sensors. Additionally, significant spatial variability was identified, allowing for the high-resolution delineation of homogeneous zones. Regarding peatland moisture drivers, the impact of the weather events, soil composition variability and vegetation will be further studied. This study introduces a novel approach for investigating peatland moisture and is promising for characterizing moisture heterogeneities in disturbed peatlands and could inform future restoration strategies.
- Affiliations
Citations
Henrion, M., Wu, K., Li, Y., Thami, A., Jonard, F., Opfergelt, S., Vanacker, V., Van Oost, K., & Lambot, S. (2024). Time-lapse monitoring with drone-borne Ground-Penetrating Radar unveils spatiotemporal moisture dynamics in peatland root zone. The Sixth Global Proximal Soil Sensing Workshop, Gent. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/266390