Located 15 miles northwest of Waco, Texas, the Waco Lake Wetlands, is an environmental conservation project built in 2001 in response to the loss of habitat in Waco Lake's rising water levels. This 180-acre site is one of the largest ecological works of its kind with a wide variety of aquatic plants, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, along with countless migratory birds.
The Lake Waco wetlands also provide an innovative educational experience for local colleges. In particular, the wetland serves as an outdoor "classroom" for students and researchers in Baylor University's biology department.
Funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency, one project in particular involved studying the effects of varying concentrations of phosphorus, which limits nutrients and stimulates algal and bacterial overgrowth. This results in a depletion of dissolved oxygen, critical to support animal flow.
"The experimental setup we are using tests the hypothesis that small amounts of additional phosphorus concentrations above background will cause an ecological threshold response," explained Ryan Wang, Ph.D., assistant professor at Baylor University's Reservoir Aquatic Systems Research Center. "We want to see if there are drastic changes in ecological structure and functional flow. Ultimately, this information will be used to support the development of numerical trophic standards for flow in our region."
Water was supplied from adjacent Lake Waco wetlands, and the wetlands were injected approximately 400 meters with 12 experimental streams at a rate of 600 gallons per minute. Water separation in streams maintains realistic streams to support aquatic life as is common in natural flow areas.
To assist in their research, King and his team used the HOBO wireless weather station U30-GSM/RX3000 (RX3003-00-01) remote monitoring system from Onset Corporation located in Massachusetts.
The U30-GSM/RX3000 (RX3003-00-01) system is a professional weather station that combines research-grade hardware with built-in GSM cellular communications and HOBOlink™, a networked software platform.
King and his team access the data from the HOBOlink website. "The HOBOlink web interface takes environmental monitoring to a new level," Wang said. "The ability to upload data and change settings without having to visit the website is very useful."
HOBOlink allows the research team to set alarm notifications, relay activations, manage and control the HOBO remote monitoring system via the Internet from any remote location.
The 15-channel remote monitoring system can be configured using a wide range of Onset's smart sensors or third-party use of sensor bands with the company's analog sensor ports.
S-WCF-M003, atmospheric pressure S-BPB-CM50, S-BPA-CM10, air temperature and relative humidity S-THB-M002, S-THB-M008, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) S-LIA-M003, solar total Radiation S-LIB-M003, Leaf Wetness S-LWA-M003, etc. AC Current Sensor T-ACT-0750-020, T-ACT-0750-050, T-ACT-0750-100, T-ACT-0750-250, T-MAG-0400-05, T-MAG-0400-20 , T-MAG-0400-50, T-MAG-0400-75, T-MAG-SCT-100, T-MAG-SCT-200, T-MAG-SCT-600, T-VER-971BP-200 (DC current), power sensor T-WNB-3D-240, T-WNB-3D-480, T-WNB-3Y-208, T-WNB-3Y-208-P power sensor T-VER-8051-300, T- VER-8053-800, power sensor T-VER-8044-100, energy T-VER-E50B2, water flow sensor T-MINOL-130-NL, voltage sensor T-MAG-SPT-150, T-MAG-SPT- 300, T-MAG-SPT-600, wind speed sensor T-DCI-F900-LO, T-DCI-F900-LP, T-DCI-F900-SO, T-DCI-F900-SP, CO2 sensor TEL-7001, Compressed air flow sensor T-CDI-5200-10S, T-CDI-5400-20S, air differential pressure sensor T-VER-PXU-L, T-VER-PXU-X, pressure sensor T-ASH-G2-100, T-ASH-G2-200, T-ASH-G2-500, VOC sensor T-ION-TVOC, pulse input S-UCC-M001, S-UCC-M006, S-UCD-M001, S-UCD-M006 are used to run the experimental stream,” King explained. To monitor the water level, King is utilizing a third-party sensor, the Submersible Depth Transmitter by Stevens (Related).
According to U30-GSM/RX3000 (RX3003-00-01), is an important tool to monitor the water level in the wetland as well as the current flow into the pump. If the wetland water level falls below the suction line of the pump or is shut down due to electrical or other problems, the experiment will be ruined for several hours.
"The ability to check the system online at any time is huge," Wang said. "Extremely useful alert feature calls my phone and sends emails to numerous users whenever there is a problem or a sensor goes down in range."
The system will log data every 5 minutes, mainly to ensure immediate notification if a pump shutdown occurs.
The data collected so far show that the phosphorus dosing experiments confirmed the team's hypothesis. "We saw explosive growth of filamentous algae in streams receiving low and high phosphorus concentrations, but very little in streams with controlled nutrient concentrations similar to high-quality references in our region," Wang said.
The HOBOU30-GSM/RX3000 (RX3003-00-01) system, according to King, was helpful in his research. "We chose this system because of its capabilities and functionality. It has everything we need and more at a very reasonable price. Integrating third-party water level sensors and AC current sensors T-ACT-0750-020, T-ACT- 0750-050, T-ACT-0750-100, T-ACT-0750-250, T-MAG-0400-05, T-MAG-0400-20, T-MAG-0400-50, T-MAG-0400- 75, T-MAG-SCT-100, T-MAG-SCT-200, T-MAG-SCT-600, T-VER-971BP-200 (DC current) to existing U30-GSM/RX3000 (RX3003-00- 01) The design works miraculously," Wang concluded.
