Between the towering canopies of the Black Forest and the broad, sunlit plains of the Upper Rhine Valley, six new LEAF sensors have been quietly deployed at two intensively instrumented flux tower sites. Installed by the geosense team at the University of Freiburg (https://geosense.uni-freiburg.de/), these sensors expand a growing network dedicated to capturing the dynamic pulse of our ecosystems.

Firmly mounted and supported by dedicated local power infrastructure, the LEAF sensors deliver high-resolution structural scans—both temporally and spatially—day in, day out. This robust setup ensures consistent, high-frequency monitoring and creates exciting opportunities to generate novel insights when combined with data from co-located environmental instruments.

The dense sensor networks at both sites serve as an ideal testbed for exploring ecosystem function and forest dynamics, offering new perspectives on resilience and resistance under changing environmental conditions. These ground-based observations are further enhanced by regular drone-based LiDAR acquisitions, building a uniquely detailed dataset to investigate structural forest changes over time.

The geosense team is proud to contribute to this collaborative effort and excited to be an active part of the StrucNet community.