Mayfield Creek (MAYF) is a core aquatic site and encompasses NEON's Ozarks Complex Domain. MAYF is located in dense forest wetlands about 20 miles southeast of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A small stream that is maybe 15-20 feet across and just a few feet deep. Remote sensing surveys of this site collect lidar, spectrometer and high resolution RGB camera data.
This site has one meteorological station located in the riparian area. The met station is outfitted with a subset of the same sensors used at terrestrial sites. Measurements include wind speed and direction, air temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, shortwave radiation, and PAR. This site has one upstream sensor station and one downstream sensor station. Measurements include PAR, temperature, water quality [specific conductivity, chlorophyll a, dissolved oxygen content, pH, turbidity, and fluorescent dissolved organic matter (only downstream)], and nitrate is measured at the downstream station.Three groundwater wells throughout the site collect specific conductivity, water tempertaure, and elevation of groundwater.
Field ecologists collect the following types of observational data at this site: aquatic organisms (Aquatic Microbes (surface water),macroinvertebrates
microalgae, plants and macroalgae, zooplankton. Biogeochemical data on plants,sediment water and particulates.As well as physical aquatic data on
bathymetric maps, stage,secchi depth and depth profiles, and riparian assessment. Total data products planned for this site: 78