Articles | Volume 21, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3007-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-3007-2024
Technical note
 | 
25 Jun 2024
Technical note |  | 25 Jun 2024

Technical note: An open-source, low-cost system for continuous monitoring of low nitrate concentrations in soil and open water

Sahiti Bulusu, Cristina Prieto García, Helen E. Dahlke, and Elad Levintal

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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for SOIL (SOIL).
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Cited articles

Ali, M. A., Wang, X., Chen, Y., Jiao, Y., Mahal, N. K., Moru, S., Castellano, M. J., Schnable, J. C., Schnable, P. S., and Dong, L.: Continuous Monitoring of Soil Nitrate Using a Miniature Sensor with Poly(3-octyl-thiophene) and Molybdenum Disulfide Nanocomposite, ACS Appl. Mater. Inter., 11, 29195–29206, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b07120, 2019. 
Ascott, M. J., Gooddy, D. C., Wang, L., Stuart, M. E., Lewis, M. A., Ward, R. S., and Binley, A. M.: Global patterns of nitrate storage in the vadose zone, Nat. Commun., 8, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01321-w, 2017. 
Bristow, N., Rengaraj, S., Chadwick, D. R., Kettle, J., and Jones, D. L.: Development of a LoRaWAN IoT Node with Ion-Selective Electrode Soil Nitrate Sensors for Precision Agriculture, Sensors, 22, 9100, https://doi.org/10.3390/s22239100, 2022. 
Bulusu, S. and Levintal, E.: An open-source, low-cost system for continuous monitoring of low nitrate concentrations in soil and open water, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12341717, 2024. 
Chen, S., Chen, J., Qian, M., Liu, J., and Fang, Y.: Low cost, portable voltammetric sensors for rapid detection of nitrate in soil, Electrochim. Acta, 446, 142077, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2023.142077, 2023. 
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Short summary
Do-it-yourself hardware is a new way to improve measurement resolution. We present a low-cost, automated system for field measurements of low nitrate concentrations in soil porewater and open water bodies. All data hardware components cost USD 1100, which is much cheaper than other available commercial solutions. We provide the complete building guide to reduce technical barriers, which we hope will allow easier reproducibility and set up new soil and environmental monitoring applications.
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