The Log | School News

Duke Researchers Receive $1.88 Million Grant for Wireless Environmental Sensor Network

Duke University environmental scientists have received a five-year, $1.88 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop an advanced wireless sensor network that can measure, model and predict biophysical changes in the forest environment.

The network will help researchers better understand how the growth, survival and reproduction of forest trees are influenced by changes in climate, atmospheric carbon dioxide and other environmental variables that can fluctuate rapidly. Such changes are expected with the ongoing alteration in global climate as increasing carbon dioxide levels from burning fossil fuels and other sources contribute to global warming.

James S. Clark, who is H. L. Blomquist Professor of Biology at the Nicholas School, is principal investigator on the grant.

“This network will allow us to go into remote locations, install the sensors, and, for years to come, collect a depth and breadth of data that would be virtually impossible to obtain through any other means,” he said. “It has the potential to let us study environmental change on a whole new scale.”

Clark’s co-investigators are Alan Gelfand, James B. Duke Professor of Statistics and Decision Sciences; Pankaj Agarwal, Earl McLean Jr. Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics; Carla Ellis, professor of computer science; Kameshwar Munagala, assistant professor of computer science; and Jun Yang, assistant professor of computer science.

They will collaborate with Paul Flikkema, professor of electrical engineering at Northern Arizona University. Flikkema received an additional five-year NSF grant for $760,000 to work with the Duke team on the network.

Judson Edeburn, resource manager for Duke Forest, also is assisting the team.