Can you recommend an in-field telemetry system for tracking soil temperature across research plots?

Yes — for research plots, I’d generally recommend a low-power wireless soil temperature telemetry system built around:

• Buried soil temperature probes at each plot
• A field data logger/node per plot or cluster
• Wireless backhaul to a gateway/cloud platform
• Solar + battery power if plots are remote

Good system types to consider

1. Campbell Scientific soil telemetry

Best if you want a very robust, research-grade setup.

• Pros: excellent data quality, flexible sensor compatibility, strong support for multi-depth soil temperature logging
• Cons: higher cost, more setup complexity
• Typical use: university/agronomy research, long-term field trials

2. METER Group ZENTRA system

A strong option for distributed environmental monitoring.

• Pros: easy integration with soil sensors, cloud access, reliable telemetry
• Cons: still premium-priced
• Typical use: research plots needing remote access and good visualization

3. Decagon/METER TEROS sensors + data logger

If you want a simpler node-based setup for many plots.

• Pros: compact, good sensor quality, scalable
• Cons: telemetry usually requires pairing with a logger/gateway
• Typical use: replicated plot experiments

4. Libelium / Seeed / custom LoRaWAN systems

Best if you want lower cost and are comfortable with more integration work.

• Pros: scalable, long range, lower power, flexible
• Cons: more engineering effort, sensor calibration and field robustness matter a lot
• Typical use: large plot networks, budget-conscious deployments

My practical recommendation

For most research plot applications, a LoRaWAN-based telemetry system is often the best balance:

• soil temp sensors in each plot
• small battery/solar node
• LoRaWAN gateway on-site
• automatic upload to a server or cloud dashboard

This works especially well if:

• plots are spread out across a field
• you need many measurement points
• you want to avoid cell coverage dependence

What to look for

Make sure the system supports:

• multi-depth probes if needed
• accuracy around ±0.1 to ±0.5 °C
• weatherproof enclosures
• long battery life
• timestamped data export
• remote diagnostics
• easy calibration and replacement

If you want a concrete stack

A solid research-grade, lower-maintenance setup could be:

• Sensor: METER TEROS 12 or dedicated temperature probes
• Node: LoRaWAN-enabled logger
• Gateway: multi-channel LoRaWAN gateway with cellular or Ethernet backhaul
• Platform: ZENTRA, ThingsBoard, or a custom MQTT dashboard

If you tell me:

1. how many plots,
2. whether you need single-depth or multi-depth temperature,
3. whether there’s cellular/internet access, and
4. your budget range,

I can recommend a more specific system and architecture.