The Dead Lake (DELA) is a relocatable Terrestrial site within NEON's Ozarks Complex Domain 7. DELA is just northeast of Demopolis, AL near the Black Warrior River. The site is in Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) 133A Southern Coastal Plains, near the boundary of MLRA 135A Alabama and Mississippi Blackland Prairie. Surrounded by woody wetlands and evergreen forest, DELA sits on the flood plain steps and stream terraces of an inside meander of the Black Warrior River in Greene Co., AL. Remote sensing surveys of this field site collect lidar, spectrometer and high-resolution RGB camera data.
The flux/meteorological tower at this site is 138' 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 and a series of throughfalls located in the soil array. 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 soil data.
