I have multiple miniDOT DO loggers deployed in small mountain streams. Getting data on DO through the winter would be valuable, but at the same time, I don't want to damage our sensors. The PME site suggests that the loggers function in the cold as long as they are in liquid water, but as we weigh whether to keep or remove the sensors this winter, I would be interested to hear about other people's experiences/perspectives on logger and battery performance over long time periods in cold water . Thanks!
Hi Dana Warren ! We deployed our miniDOTs in the Swiss Alps over the winter with very few problems, even without maintenance given the access restriction in the winter (i.e. avalanche danger). We made sure to put fresh, good batteries in during the final maintenance check and deployment in the fall and set the logging time from 10 minutes to every 30 minutes to ensure that we didn't lose any data due to memory space. The loggers faired well as they were in liquid water or well insulated under the snow. Overall, we left them from early November into March and April and were able to gather data during that entire time frame. Let me know if you want to discuss further -- send me an email!
Amber
Hi Dana,
Ryan Sponseller's PhD student had MiniDot loggers in northern Sweden in a variety of stream sizes and varying hydrology. They left them out all winter and I believe some went try at least one season. I think they were fine. If you want her email, let me know and I will send it to you.
Matt
Thank you Amber and Matt. Incase someone else has this question and finds this thread on reseachgate, I figured it would be worth reporting back. As Amber and Matt both suggested, the MiniDOT loggers seem to have worked just fine through the winter. Data looks good - although still parsing some of it out. We deployed the loggers in five headwater streams in the northern range of Yellowstone National Park. They were definitely under ice for much of the winter and they experienced spring run-off as well. Our collaborators visited a couple of the sites in February and at that time they saw some anchor ice, but the loggers were not in the ice (they were deployed at about 75% of the depth).
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Physical Sciences
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Soft Matter
- Liquids