Shared by Prof Sasha Turchyn, Department of Earth Sciences
Despite a brisk autumn wind, this year’s visit to Luke’s Farm was a great success, giving students from the Quantitative Climate and Environmental Science Masters course the opportunity to apply their classroom learning to real-world environmental monitoring.
The group took part as part of their core course, Environmental Data Acquisition and Analysis. While much of their programme focuses on the mathematical foundations of climate and environmental systems, this course introduces the practical side of data collection and interpretation.
During the trip, students used AirGradient sensors, small portable devices designed to measure air quality parameters such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and particulate matter. These same instruments are being deployed by teams within the CLR to monitor green house gasses in rural environments. Students also had the chance to learn about eddy covariance towers — tall structures equipped with sensors that measure the exchange of gases like carbon dioxide and water vapour between the land surface and the atmosphere. These towers provide crucial long-term data for understanding how ecosystems breathe and respond to environmental change.
Finally, students put their learning into practice by using their monitors to measure soil respiration rates — essentially how much carbon dioxide the soil releases — giving them a hands-on look at how the ground “breathes” and connects to the wider climate system.
Through fieldwork like this, students gain a tangible understanding of how environmental data are collected, the technology behind it, and how these measurements feed into climate research and policy.
The visit also highlighted the value of collaboration between the students and experts in the field — including Luke, the farmer, who shared his deep knowledge of the landscape; Ross Morrison from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), whose expertise in environmental monitoring added invaluable context; and Tom Marquand, a PhD student in the department, who provided insight into methane emissions from soils and the processes that drive them.