The Missouri Ozarks AmeriFlux (MOFLUX) site was established in 2004 at the University of Missouri’s Baskett Forest in collaboration with scientists in the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and is currently co-led by Lianhong Gu (ORNL) and Jeff Wood (MU). The MOFLUX tower is 105 feet tall and equipped to measure the “breathing of the forest”. A comprehensive suite of other biometric and ecophysiological measurements are maintained to enable understanding of forest functioning from roots-to-shoots, and leaf-to-landscape. Science at MOFLUX aims to enhance scientific understanding and prediction of:
- Plant function and responses to environmental conditions,
- How extreme events and droughts impact forests, and
- Forest changes over time and responses to changing climatic conditions.
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On the tower
The tower itself is home to several instruments used to monitor net ecosystem exchanges by measuring wind velocities, gas concentrations, and temperature. This provides us with data to look at how eddies (whirls of air) move gases and heat – and how much of each is exchanging between the forest and atmosphere.
Around the tower
Instruments and routine monitoring in the area around the tower study the forest at the sub-ecosystem level. They measure soil respiration, leaf water potential, and more.
MOFLUX 