67 -- Minirhizotron Camera System

The USDA, Agricultural Research Service, High Plains Grasslands Research Station, Cheyenne, Wyoming, intends to enter into a single source contract with Bartz Technology Corporation, Santa Barbara, California, for the purchase of a High Magnification Minirhizotron Camera System. This is a high resolution color camera with S-VHS output designed for outdoor use in a 2 inch (51 mm) tube with remote zoom to observe objects up to 100 times original size, and includes a Smucker Indexing Handle System allowing precise camera location in a 2-inch inside diameter tube and Image Capture System, which captures, names and stores digital images in the field, directly from camera head to field computer for later lab analysis, including control software, image management software, sub-notebook field computer installed in fieldcase, field power system and recharger. This system will be used to quantify root growth in a field global change experiment in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency's Nevada FACE (Free Air CO2 Enrichment)Project, which is currently using a Bartz Minirhizotron Camera System. The ability to compare results with images being taken at the Nevada experiment is required. It is critical in such cross-site experiments to utilize the same equipment or differences between experimental results can be attributed to different technologies. This system will also be used in a project conducted on a shortgrass prairie in Colorado using a Bartz minirhizotron camera system and compare results from an experiment conducted on Wyoming mixed-grass prairie. Comparisons will be severely compromised if the same type of camera technology used in Colorado is not used in Wyoming. *Provide Qualification Statement by Close of Business August 11, 2005, if interested in this procurement.