NEWS

Update 36: Soil & microclimate monitoring in restored areas

Importance of understanding microclimate in restored areas

We are already monitoring weather conditions in Lurë and Voskopojë with the help of our monitoring systems. This allows us to monitor key weather parameters such as temperature, humidity and precipitation which are crucial for understanding the conditions in which our trees are growing and planning our planting activities (both trees and seeds) to ensure their optimal growth and survival.

If we can understand the microclimate where the planted trees are growing or even know the characteristics of the soil and microclimate for a given planting area in advance we can further optimize our planting activities and increase the chances of survival for the planted trees.

By combining data from the microclimate sensors, weather conditions, and survival rate, we can identify patterns and correlations that help us understand and interpret the survival rate for a particular year.

Evidence supporting alternative planting methods

We are executing a project to evaluate alternative planting methods, see more details in Update 35. Having microclimate data from our trials for each alternative planting method in combination with the survival data will provide an evidence based understanding of the suitability of each planting method.

This time we have installed the TMS-4 sensors next to both 1-year-old saplings planted with minimal soil disturbance and 2-year-old saplings planted with the standard planting method. We have sample plots and sensors for both Lurë and Voskopojë.

This will provide us data to evaluate effect of digging a big hole versus minimal surface disturbance on the microclimate conditions for the planted tree.

TMS-4 microclimate sensors

We are using microclimate sensors from Czech company TOMST s.r.o. in both Lurë and Voskopojë, in areas where we have been planting trees in 2024 and 2025.

These sensors are fully waterproof and designed to last 10 years in the field, if not damaged or stolen. They are measuring the following parameters:

1. soil moisture
2. temperature of the soil
3. temperature at the surface level
4. air temperature at 20cm above the surface

Example of microclimate data

Once the sensors are installed, they start collecting data every 15 minutes (or depending on the settings). We can later extract the data from the sensors during our monitoring field visits.

What’s next?

We will be collecting data during 2026 and we hope that the sensors won’t be stolen or damaged by people or animals.