Abby Road (ABBY) is a relocatable site within NEON's Domain 16: Pacific Northwest. Abby is located in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in a young forest, ABBY field site provides an interesting comparison to NEON's WREF site which is located in a nearby old growth forest that is primarily used for research.
Sampling plots at ABBY have been established across a mixed landscape of timber plantations ranging from clear cut stands to stands planted in the mid-1960s. Several recreational paths actually cross through the field site. Located in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in a young forest, ABBY field site provides an interesting comparison to NEON's WREF site which is located in a nearby old growth forest that is primarily used for research. Remote sensing surveys of this field site collect lidar, spectrometer and high-resolution RGB camera data.
The flux/meteorological tower at this site is 61 with 6 measurement levels. The tower top extends above the vegetation canopy to allow sensors mounted at the top and along the tower to capture the full profile of atmospheric conditions from the top of the vegetation canopy to the ground. The tower collects physical and chemical properties of atmosphere-related processes, such as humidity, wind, and net ecosystem gas exchange. Precipitation data are collected by a tipping bucket at the top of the tower, a Double Fence Intercomparison Reference (DFIR) near the tower, and a series of throughfalls located in the soil array.This site has one phenocam on the top of the flux tower and and one near the bottom of the tower. This site has five soil plots placed in an array within the airshed of the flux tower. Field ecologists collect the following types of observational data at this site: Terrestrial organisms (birds, ground beetles, mosquitoes, plants, small mammals, soil microbes, ticks), Biogeochemical data, and and soil data.
