The aquatic eddy covariance (AEC) technique is a versatile tool for understanding benthic fluxes, and calculating primary production, respiration, and net ecosystem metabolism rates of benthic communities. A limitation for researchers has been the length of deployments where the major constraints have primarily been sensor breakage and degradation over time and battery consumption. This paper evaluates the design and deployment of a long-term eddy covariance system (LECS) that was deployed in a temperate seagrass meadow for 6 months that resulted in reliable data 79% of the time. The system consisted of a fixed bottom lander that measured the AEC and a surface buoy that transmitted real time data and provided solar power. This study found a gradual reduction in sensor response time, likely due to fouling, that reduced the response time from 1 to 22 s and resulted in a normalized root square mean error of 8% when comparing the LECS with a second short-term AEC system. New spectral analysis techniques allow for these changes in sensor response time to be monitored in real time so the sensor can be replaced or cleaned as needed. This ensures future deployments will be able to collect high-quality data and allow for long-term analyses of benthic fluxes using the new technology and analyses of the presented LECS.

中文翻译：

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长期水生涡度协方差系统的开发和部署

水生涡度协方差 (AEC) 技术是了解底栖通量、计算底栖群落初级生产力、呼吸和净生态系统代谢率的通用工具。研究人员面临的一个限制是部署的长度，其中主要限制是传感器随着时间的推移而损坏和退化以及电池消耗。本文评估了长期涡度协方差系统 (LECS) 的设计和部署，该系统在温带海草草甸部署了 6 个月，在 79% 的时间内产生了可靠的数据。该系统由一个测量 AEC 的固定底部着陆器和一个传输实时数据并提供太阳能的表面浮标组成。这项研究发现传感器响应时间逐渐减少，可能是由于污垢，将 LECS 与第二个短期 AEC 系统进行比较时，响应时间从 1 秒缩短至 22 秒，归一化均方根误差为 8%。新的光谱分析技术可以实时监控传感器响应时间的这些变化，以便可以根据需要更换或清洁传感器。这确保了未来的部署能够收集高质量的数据，并允许使用新技术和现有 LECS 分析对海底通量进行长期分析。