Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MIRRA (MIRRA: Microclimate Real-time Remote Applications)
Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-05-31
Climate change is having profound impacts on ecological, agricultural and other societal systems. Quantifying climate change and its consequences has become a major focus of the physical and life sciences. Our knowledge of climatic changes, however, predominantly relies on a global network of official weather stations. Such weather stations are generally established in open landscapes where the wind mixes the air, above short grass and well away from trees. However, these data do not accurately reflect microclimates (defined as the thermal and hydric conditions in the immediate vicinity of organisms or ecosystem processes of interest, as driven by atmospheric conditions interacting with the abiotic and biotic components of the Earth's surface). Quantifying the true impact of climate change in forests, for instance, is only possible when taking the microclimate into account. To achieve a thorough assessment of its importance, a first step is to robustly and accurately quantify microclimate itself and make these data immediately available to end users. Therefore, an integrative device quantifying a suite of climatic conditions including temperature, light, and moisture is needed and these data need to be available in real time to stakeholders, the scientific community and society.
The objective of MIRRA is to develop a Microclimate Real-time Remote Applications (MIRRA) system, entirely open access and with open data. This system quantifies the microclimate in real-time and in remote locations (e.g. forests, arable fields, grasslands or mountains) and make the data automatically available. We specifically focused on a simple, low-cost, miniature self-assembly device that can function over long time periods (years) with automatic data upload into the cloud via a wireless designed for low-power usage.
The objective of MIRRA is to develop a Microclimate Real-time Remote Applications (MIRRA) system, entirely open access and with open data. This system quantifies the microclimate in real-time and in remote locations (e.g. forests, arable fields, grasslands or mountains) and make the data automatically available. We specifically focused on a simple, low-cost, miniature self-assembly device that can function over long time periods (years) with automatic data upload into the cloud via a wireless designed for low-power usage.
1. Developing a reproducible self-assembly version of the MIRRA device and associated manuals
We succeeded in the development of a reproducible self-assembly version of the MIRRA device. We developed both a user manual and a developer manual. The user manual explains the set-up of sensor nodes and gateway nodes for a MIRRA microclimate system from introduction to the system components to programming the PCBs, connecting a gateway to the cloud server, connecting sensor nodes to the gateway, field installation and troubleshooting. The user manual is openly accessible at the MIRRA website (https://canopychange.ugent.be/usermanual.html(opens in new window)). The developer manual is available on github and includes a description of the system on a more technical level, including technical drawings of PCB boards, 3D designs of radiation shields and the software for the sensor and gateway node. All code can be simply loaded as a project in PlatformIO, an open-source ecosystem for embedded development.
2. Showcase development for forest microclimate measurements
We manufactured +/- 50 MIRRA sensors. These sensors were installed in forests and climate change experiments in Belgium to establish a microclimate master site in the Aelmoeseneieforest, Gontrode, Belgium from which the data are openly accessible and downloadable as .csv files. A first showcase compares the microclimate on the forest floor with the macroclimate above the canopy. A second showcase demonstrates the effect of a climate change experiment including a warming, light addition and forest edge treatment on forest microclimate and on an experimental forest plant community. A third showcase demonstrates the effect of a climate change experiment with small greenhouses in the forest on microclimate and on long-term changes of forest plant biodiversity.
For all three showcases the microclimate data consists of: air and soil temperature values (°C), light values (Lux), relative humidity values (%). These parameters are displayed with a sampling interval of 20 minutes.
Showcase 1: https://canopychange.ugent.be/showcase1.html(opens in new window)
Showcase 2: https://canopychange.ugent.be/showcase2.html(opens in new window)
Showcase 3: https://canopychange.ugent.be/showcase3.html(opens in new window)
3. Developing a website with open access to all technical details necessary for self-assembly of the MIRRA device and the manual and interactive graphs highlighting the forest microclimate showcases and open access to all data.
All information was gathered on one website to make everything easily findable (https://canopychange.ugent.be/mirra.html(opens in new window)). Additionally, metadata and code are all made available on an openly accessible github repository (https://github.com/mirra-org(opens in new window)). Both websites are clearly linked to each other and easy to find when using a search engine and entering the project name "MIRRA" and “microclimate”.
We succeeded in the development of a reproducible self-assembly version of the MIRRA device. We developed both a user manual and a developer manual. The user manual explains the set-up of sensor nodes and gateway nodes for a MIRRA microclimate system from introduction to the system components to programming the PCBs, connecting a gateway to the cloud server, connecting sensor nodes to the gateway, field installation and troubleshooting. The user manual is openly accessible at the MIRRA website (https://canopychange.ugent.be/usermanual.html(opens in new window)). The developer manual is available on github and includes a description of the system on a more technical level, including technical drawings of PCB boards, 3D designs of radiation shields and the software for the sensor and gateway node. All code can be simply loaded as a project in PlatformIO, an open-source ecosystem for embedded development.
2. Showcase development for forest microclimate measurements
We manufactured +/- 50 MIRRA sensors. These sensors were installed in forests and climate change experiments in Belgium to establish a microclimate master site in the Aelmoeseneieforest, Gontrode, Belgium from which the data are openly accessible and downloadable as .csv files. A first showcase compares the microclimate on the forest floor with the macroclimate above the canopy. A second showcase demonstrates the effect of a climate change experiment including a warming, light addition and forest edge treatment on forest microclimate and on an experimental forest plant community. A third showcase demonstrates the effect of a climate change experiment with small greenhouses in the forest on microclimate and on long-term changes of forest plant biodiversity.
For all three showcases the microclimate data consists of: air and soil temperature values (°C), light values (Lux), relative humidity values (%). These parameters are displayed with a sampling interval of 20 minutes.
Showcase 1: https://canopychange.ugent.be/showcase1.html(opens in new window)
Showcase 2: https://canopychange.ugent.be/showcase2.html(opens in new window)
Showcase 3: https://canopychange.ugent.be/showcase3.html(opens in new window)
3. Developing a website with open access to all technical details necessary for self-assembly of the MIRRA device and the manual and interactive graphs highlighting the forest microclimate showcases and open access to all data.
All information was gathered on one website to make everything easily findable (https://canopychange.ugent.be/mirra.html(opens in new window)). Additionally, metadata and code are all made available on an openly accessible github repository (https://github.com/mirra-org(opens in new window)). Both websites are clearly linked to each other and easy to find when using a search engine and entering the project name "MIRRA" and “microclimate”.
Results, Potential Impacts & Key Needs for Further Uptake
• The project delivered an open-source version of the MIRRA sensor system for forest microclimate monitoring, including:
o Fully documented hardware and software,
o User and developer manuals,
o A public web platform with downloadable data and documentation.
• Three permanent showcases were installed in a Belgian forest, demonstrating MIRRA’s scientific application and technical performance.
• The system enables cost-efficient, high-resolution microclimate monitoring with open data, supporting:
o Ecological research on climate and biodiversity,
o Educational use and citizen science,
o Broader public engagement with environmental data, climate change, and the buffering capacity of forests, for instance, during heatwaves.
Key needs to ensure further uptake and success:
• Broader demonstration in other ecosystems to validate general applicability (e.g. agricultural systems).
• Small-scale funding and support to help new users adopt and adapt the system.
• Continued community development and maintenance of the open-source codebase.
• A cloud service for real-time data access was developed and is operational, but:
o The interface could be made more user-friendly.
o Device monitoring and remote configuration are not yet fully integrated or functional.
o Integration with the MDB (formerly SoilTemp) database is not yet implemented but is part of ongoing developments (see link with biodiversa+ project Tree-Web 3.0 explained further).
• The project delivered an open-source version of the MIRRA sensor system for forest microclimate monitoring, including:
o Fully documented hardware and software,
o User and developer manuals,
o A public web platform with downloadable data and documentation.
• Three permanent showcases were installed in a Belgian forest, demonstrating MIRRA’s scientific application and technical performance.
• The system enables cost-efficient, high-resolution microclimate monitoring with open data, supporting:
o Ecological research on climate and biodiversity,
o Educational use and citizen science,
o Broader public engagement with environmental data, climate change, and the buffering capacity of forests, for instance, during heatwaves.
Key needs to ensure further uptake and success:
• Broader demonstration in other ecosystems to validate general applicability (e.g. agricultural systems).
• Small-scale funding and support to help new users adopt and adapt the system.
• Continued community development and maintenance of the open-source codebase.
• A cloud service for real-time data access was developed and is operational, but:
o The interface could be made more user-friendly.
o Device monitoring and remote configuration are not yet fully integrated or functional.
o Integration with the MDB (formerly SoilTemp) database is not yet implemented but is part of ongoing developments (see link with biodiversa+ project Tree-Web 3.0 explained further).