A flux tower in the Kulathupuzha forest: the Critical Zone Observatory IISER Thiruvananthapuram runs

Background

As Keralam sets up a State-level unit with the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority and NABARD to track El Nino's effect on farming, one of the State's own long-term measuring stations is worth knowing. The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram runs a Critical Zone Observatory in the Kulathupuzha forest range, made up of an Eddy Covariance Flux Observatory and a River Discharge Measurement Station. It was inaugurated by the institute's Director, Prof. J.N. Moorthy, and was set up by Dr. Prasanth V and Dr. Anand N S of the School of Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences. Officials of the Kerala Forest Department attended the opening along with institute faculty and staff. A critical zone observatory measures the thin surface layer of the earth where rock, soil, water, air and living things meet; an eddy covariance flux tower measures the exchange of carbon dioxide, water vapour and heat between a forest and the atmosphere, while a river discharge station measures how much water a stream carries. Together they give the long-run record against which a drought or an El Nino year can be judged.