{"id":331,"date":"2025-08-22T05:22:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T05:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/?page_id=331"},"modified":"2025-08-27T05:09:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T05:09:15","slug":"about-our-lab","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-medium-font-size\">The critical zone is defined as the near-surface environment extending from the top of the trees down to the bedrock, and typically involves complex interactions between rock, soils, water, air, and living organisms. In our lab, we use an array of hydrogeophysical tools to image the critical zone, from the trees above the ground, to the geological materials and structures below the ground. We also use these measurements to capture and monitor a variety of physical and hydrogeochemical processes, from moisture content in soils and trees, to gas accumulation and fluxes in peat soils, or dissolution features in karst materials.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2358\" src=\"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/Maine-picGPR-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-380\" style=\"width:948px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/Maine-picGPR-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/Maine-picGPR-1-300x276.jpg 300w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/Maine-picGPR-1-1024x943.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/Maine-picGPR-1-768x708.jpg 768w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/Maine-picGPR-1-1536x1415.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/Maine-picGPR-1-2048x1887.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements (top) and profile (bottom) in a boreal peatland in Maine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" src=\"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/LuquilloLTER-tree-1-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-381\" style=\"width:953px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/LuquilloLTER-tree-1-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/LuquilloLTER-tree-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/LuquilloLTER-tree-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/LuquilloLTER-tree-1-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/LuquilloLTER-tree-1-2048x1153.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements in trees at the Luquillo LTER to monitor moisture content distribution.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">We apply a variety of ground-based and airborne techniques at multiple scales of measurement that include electromagnetic methods like ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and terrain conductivity, electrical methods like electrical resistivity, magnetic methods, and shallow seismic methods. These methods are constrained with other field-based techniques like direct coring and hydrological wells and sensors, as well as laboratory measurements.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"950\" height=\"650\" src=\"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/multi-scale-geophysics-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-423\" style=\"width:972px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/multi-scale-geophysics-2.jpg 950w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/multi-scale-geophysics-2-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6859\/2025\/08\/multi-scale-geophysics-2-768x525.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Composite figure that highlights the ability of geophysical methods for the integration of multiple scales of measurement (from 0.1-100,000m) for characterizing the critical zone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The critical zone is defined as the near-surface environment extending from the top of the trees down to the bedrock, and typically involves complex interactions between rock, soils, water, air, and living organisms. In our lab, we use an array &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7202,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-fullwidth.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-331","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myweb.fiu.edu\/xcomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}