Student Research Reports

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ABSTRACT :The Marmont Alley is a protected tree line made out of 102 plane trees in Karlovac planted in the Napoleonic era. Extensive construction work on the D6 road that starts in the alley began in 2019 which threatened the survival and health of the trees. This project demonstrate the importance of preserving the alley's trees, demonstrate the role that trees play in the city's carbon cycle, and establish a system for monitoring the environment (Marmont Alley). Students who took part in the study are part of the GLOBE and IT groups. At the beginning, the GLOBE Observer application was used to measure the height of each tree and position, and a tape measure was used to measure the circumference. The students calculated each tree's age, chest diameter, dry and green weight, carbon storage, and mass of CO2 absorbed based on the measured data. Calculations were performed using Python programming, and the results are shown in the tables and graphs. The hypothesis that amount of absorbed CO2 increases exponentially with the age of tree was confirmed which is why it is important to preserve old trees. An Arduino system with a sensor for detecting air quality (MQ135) was created and placed in Marmont Alley in September 2022. The sensor recorded the total concentration of CO2, NH3, smoke, and harmful gases in the atmosphere, and the measured data were transmitted to the server via Wi-Fi. The weather station measurements were stored in the database. Daily atmospheric parameters at the school weather station (located 100 m from the alley) were measured and compared to the gas measurements made in Marmont Alley. The research project was presented at CUC (Carnet Users Conference) 2023, therefore data from the weather station were provided for the time frame of September 1 to December 18, 2023. The findings indicated that more gases were recorded on days when the air humidity was higher and on days when there was precipitation. A larger amount of gases were also measured in the time period of late autumn, when the trees lose all their leaves.