Parametric design for soil gas flux system: a low-cost solution for continuous monitoring

Abstract. Monitoring soil gas fluxes is essential for understanding greenhouse gas dynamics within the critical zone. One commonly used method involves chamber-based methods which enables the quantification of soil gas fluxes on a specific point at the soil-atmosphere interface. However, point measurements often limit the representativeness of the field-scale processes due to the large spatio-temporal variability of climatic, hydrological, pedological, or ecological factors controlling its dynamics. Additionally, commercial chambers often prohibits deployment over sufficient representative area due to expensive operational and purchase costs.

Although low-cost and open-source designs have recently emerged in the literature, solutions enabling adaptability to field-site characteristics and design validation are still lacking. To address these challenges, we propose here a low-cost, parametric soil gas flux system that can be adapted to logistical and field constraints while allowing high-frequency measurement resolution. Alongside the open-design hardware, we also developed software to facilitate automatic data acquisition and processing. We conducted laboratory investigations to evaluate both the sensor and chamber-design integration. Thus, we can address the data assurance from low-cost systems even with different parametric configurations. Finally, our approach demonstrate low-cost solutions enable the democratization of these systems by having a framework that can be adaptable for different study sites.