Supersite (Flux Tower and Core 1-hectare Plot)

Overview

An 80-metre instrumented tower measures the rates that CO2, water and energy that go into and out of a mixed-age (mature and 1898 wildfire regeneration) Eucalyptus obliqua forest. The site was established with funds from the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network – a facility funded by the Commonwealth Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme. The site is one of 30 in an Australasian network of flux sites – the Ozflux Network – which span the Australian climate domain. It is the tallest tower in the Ozflux network.

Value

The data provided by the Ozflux network is used nationally to improve the reliability of continental-scale models such as those for climate and productivity. The Ozflux data contributes to a global network of flux sites (Fluxnet) providing a much-needed southern hemisphere balance to our scientific understanding of the global carbon and water cycles. The data also provides new insights into how particular ecosystems function.

The value of the flux site to forest management is in better understanding about how productivity of tall, wet eucalypt forest varies in response to weather conditions. Extreme weather events are of particular interest: we need to identify any vulnerability these forests have to such events and use that knowledge to help devise ways we can manage the forests to lessen the adverse impacts of climate change.

History

  • Project proposal to TERN in May 2009
  • Funding granted by TERN in August 2009
  • Site commissioned in March 2013
  • Flux Tower records large-scale fire event in January 2019

What is measured

  • Fluxes of CO2, water and energy
  • Climatology – temperature, humidity, radiation, rainfall, wind speed and direction
  • Soil moisture, soil temperature, soil heat flux

Datasets

  • Annual quality-controlled time series of fluxes, climatology and soil measurements (30-minute averages) lodged on OzFlux Data Portal
  • Archived 10 Hz measurements from sonic anemometer and infrared gas analyser.

SuperSites

SuperSites web site at TERN

Ozflux

Ozflux Web site

Supersite Establishment Report

Establishment report for the one hectare plot at the Warra Supersite