🔧 Field Update from Donau-Auen National Park (Austria)

This week, we made a quick trip to our research site near Vienna to check on the automated flux chambers that are continuously recording high-resolution data on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from floodplain waters. These instruments are crucial for monitoring changes in CO₂ and CH₄ fluxes, particularly in response to hydrological dynamics.

Unfortunately, water levels remain exceptionally low, and the long-anticipated flooding event has not yet occurred; a pattern we are observing across several sites this season.

However, not all field visits go as planned. To our great disappointment, we discovered that one of our chambers had been vandalized, with all electronics including the solar panel, battery system and control unit had been removed. This is not a case of wildlife interference, as we’ve seen in the past; it appears to have been a deliberate act by a person who forced open the locked housing. This equipment represents many hours of design, testing, and field preparation by our team, and its loss is significant both scientifically and personally.

Despite the setback, we are fully committed to continuing our work. The damaged chamber will be replaced, and data collection will resume as planned.

🌍 Our research continues, and we remain dedicated to understanding GHG dynamics in European river-floodplain systems as part of the FluxFlood project.