{"id":71,"date":"2021-04-11T14:12:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-11T21:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/?page_id=71"},"modified":"2021-04-12T14:07:50","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T21:07:50","slug":"previous-research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/previous-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Previous Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

BSc. Honours Thesis<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Title: <\/b>Development of an automated system to collect discrete temporal samples of air for methane concentration and stable isotope analysis<\/b><\/p>\n

Research Goal: <\/strong>Develop and test an automated system capable of capturing and storing air samples from methane emitting sources at timed intervals throughout the night. This would allow for tracing an atmospheric buildup of methane during nocturnal inversions. The system would be a low-cost and easily replicable design allowing for multiple samplers to be setup throughout a landscape to trace and map emission hotspots.<\/p>\n

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Components for autosampler system roughly fitted to the underside of the container lid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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12 sample bags fitted into the autosampler container<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Abstract: <\/b>Global atmospheric methane (CH<\/span>4<\/span>) has risen to historic levels of 1876 ppb as of April 2020, with\u00a0 a rise of over 80 ppb in the past 11 years. More studies are pointing to extensive biogenic CH<\/span>4 <\/span>sources, such as wetlands and agriculture, to be large contributors to the recent increase. Bottom up scaling of chamber measurements can cause inaccuracies when used to estimate emissions\u00a0 from heterogenous landscapes that emit CH<\/span>4<\/span>. Collecting ground-level atmospheric samples\u00a0 during nocturnal inversions can\u00a0<\/span>provide a more accurate representation of the landscape\u00a0 emissions as a whole. A portable, automated sampling system was developed to collect and store atmospheric samples remotely in the field. After retrieval, the samples can be used to determine\u00a0 both the CH<\/span>4 <\/span>emission rate and the <\/span>\u03b4<\/span>13<\/span>C and <\/span>\u03b4<\/span>2<\/span>H isotope values of the source. This system was\u00a0 created using a diaphragm pump and solenoid valves housed in custom 3D-print<\/span>ed casings to\u00a0 collect ambient air in volume-optimized polymer-coated aluminum foil bags. All components are\u00a0 controlled by an Arduino microcontroller running C\/C++ code. The system takes user input f<\/span>rom\u00a0 a keypad to set the number of samples for collection and storage, and the timing of sampling.\u00a0 The system also can be used to transfer samples directly from storage containers into a laser\u00a0 spectrometer for CH<\/span>4 <\/span>analysis. The system was refined and tested during deployments<\/span>\u00a0in the\u00a0 valley in north Glenmore, which incl<\/span>udes significant CH<\/span>4 <\/span>sources such as the Glenmore Landfill and Roberts Lake wetlands. Nocturnal inversions needed to form a stable boundary layer for\u00a0 atmospheric diel sampling also are common in the area. All deployments yielded results showing\u00a0 upwards trends in atmospheric CH<\/span>4 <\/span>mixing ratio as the night progressed but with varying\u00a0 consiste<\/span>ncy in the rate of increase. A further advance on the sampling system will be the\u00a0 integration with automated flux chambers to store headspace samples of emissions for stable isotope analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Supervisor:<\/strong> Dr. Ed Hornibrook<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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First version of automated atmospheric sampler. It is placed in the tall grass of the nearby Roberts Lake wetland area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Undergraduate Research Award:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Title:<\/strong> Quantifying fugitive emission of methane from the Glenmore Landfill<\/p>\n

Research Summary:<\/strong> Both a prototype of the automated atmospheric sampler (described above) and flux chambers were used to determine an estimate of the fugitive methane emission rate from the Glenmore Landfill. Nocturnal boundary layer sampling provided the total emission rate for sources throughout the northern Glenmore area. Each major source besides the landfill was quantified: Roberts Lake wetland, compost piles at the landfill, and cattle in the surrounding area. These values were then subtracted from the total emission rate to find the approximate fugitive emission rate from the Glenmore Landfill.<\/p>\n

Supervisor:<\/strong> Dr. Ed Hornibrook<\/p>\n

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Setup involving a flux chamber (left) and portable greenhouse gas analyzer (right). This system was used for measuring methane emission rates from both wetland soils and composting soils.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Setting up a flux chamber to measure emission rates from saturated soils on the fringe of the Roberts Lake wetland area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BSc. Honours Thesis Title: Development of an automated system to collect discrete temporal samples of air for methane concentration and stable isotope analysis Research Goal: Develop and test an automated system capable of capturing and storing air samples from methane emitting sources at timed intervals throughout the night. This would allow for tracing an atmospheric … Continue reading Previous Research<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84387,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-71","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions\/114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/marcussavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}