Norfolk 'flux towers' collect data on farm carbon emissions

The Norwich-based British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) is carrying out a six-year study on sugar beet fields at the Morley Agricultural Foundation, near Wymondham.

Data is being collected through two solar-powered flux towers with sensors monitoring weather and soil parameters including temperature, windspeed and rainfall - and, most crucially, a gas analyser which measures the amount of CO2 in the air.

Coupled with the other sensors, it uses complex calculations to quantify the gas being emitted or absorbed across a whole field, during the lifecycle of sugar beet plants and the following wheat crop.

One of the flux towers collecting data on weather and carbon dioxide emissions at Morley Farms near Wymondham - Picture: Chris Hill (Image: Chris Hill)

While the farming industry has targeted reaching "net zero" greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, it is difficult to measure as CO2 levels can be influenced by the wind, weather and soil properties.

Dr Georgina Barratt, an applied crop scientist at BBRO, said the new field-scale research would provide vital data to measure progress towards those goals.

"With our climate goals, we know we need to be acting now," she said. 

"We know it at a base level, but we don’t have the detail and it takes a long time to get that detail, so the data is a little behind the policy at the moment.

"Fundamentally we don’t even have enough data on baseline emissions from the crop, so task number one is to find out what is happening, and we have got two towers to compare different management techniques.

"A good example is using cover crops versus ploughing, and in the future we will be looking at different harvest practices and management techniques."

David Jones, farm manager at Morley, added: "This research is another part of a massive jigsaw for carbon.

"There are lots of people talking about carbon, but this is measuring it in a real-life situation."