Field teams of ICOS Germany held their annual meeting in Gebesee

The idea came up some time ago at the annual scientific meeting, where usually site PIs present latest research findings and discuss strategies on how to move the network forward. Why not having an annual meeting for our technical teams who actually do the hard field work throughout the year? After last year’s visit at the beautiful forest site “Hohes Holz”, the field teams decided to go this year to the crop site in Gebesee, located in the Thuringian Basin just 20 km north of the city of Erfurt. The site is one of the longest running eddy-covariance crop sites in the flux community with first measurements being conducted in 2001. The ICOS Class-1 label was received in 2020. The site management usually foresees a regular crop rotation with either winter wheat or winter barley alternating with a root crop like potato or sugar beet. This season was different. The farmer decided to plant sun flower for the first time in the site’s history as a consequence of the current global situation. The beautiful yellow sun flower leaves had already started to wilt, but that didn’t stop the teams from various ICOS sites across Germany to chat about their experiences in operating an ICOS station. The aim of the meeting was to cover all kinds of aspects they face on an everyday basis, be it implementations for eddy-covariance or biometeorological sensors or exchanging some practical details about vegetation or soil sampling. The informal character of the meeting was appreciated – the less formal, the better. After testing proper Thuringian cuisine on Day 1, the local farmer, who is head of a big agricultural cooperative called “Geratal Agrar”, introduced the participants on Day 2 to a recently opened cow barn following latest environmental standards as well as to other field sites under organic farming. The gathering closed with an impressive demonstration by the farmer of historic and modern examples of tractors and harvesters leaving a big smile in everybody’s face. A place for next year’s meeting hasn’t been fixed yet, but all participants agreed that this type of get-together is very useful by talking to people who face the same practical issues during their site operation and by getting some nice regional impressions of other ICOS sites.