This release consists of flux tower measurements of the exchange of energy and mass between the surface and the atmospheric boundary-layer using eddy covariance techniques. Data were processed using PyFluxPro as described by Isaac et al. (2017) for the quality control and post-processing steps. The final, gap-filled product containing Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) partitioned into Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) and Ecosystem Respiration (ER) has been produced using the ONEFlux software as described in Pastorello et al. (2020). This data set has been produced as part of the FLUXNET Shuttle project.
The Fletcherview Tropical Rangeland flux station commenced continuous collection of data in January 2022. The flux tower is located at the Fletcherview Reseach Station, 90 km south-west of Townsville in the Burdekin Catchment in North Queensland and its managed by James Cook University.
The tower is located at the Fletcherview Research Station, a grazed savanna woodland of 1960 Ha located in the Burdekin Basin that typically stocks around 600 head of Brahman cattle. The station is located on a 2.5 km stretch of the Burdekin River, one of the largest river systems in Queensland. There are three ephemeral creek systems (Lolworth Creek, Pandanus Creek and Hann Creek) on Fletcherview Station. The flux station is located in an area where shallow gilgai micro-relief is a predominant surface feature with shallow depressions and mounds. The soils on the mounds are described as Dermosols and soils on the depressions are described as Vertosols.
Vegetation structural summary: Eucalyptus brownii low open woodland (11 m). A taller mid storey of younger Eucalyptus brownii, Eremophila mitchellii and Atalaya hemiglauca (6 m) and a denser lower mid storey dominated by Carissa lanceolata (0.6 m). A ground storey dominated by Bothriochloa sp., Bothriochloa pertusa and Sporobolus australasicus (0.2-0.6 m) with Urochloa mosambicensis, Eriochloa crebra and Themeda triandra.
The tower is located to the north of a 1 Ha plot established by TERN Surveillance in 2021 - Plot QDAEIU0008. The soil in this plot is a medium heavy clay and has a bulk density of 1.7 g/cm3. The common names of plant species found in this plot are Indian Bluegrass (B. pertusa), Australian Dropseed (S. australasicus), Sabi Grass (U. mosambicensis), Cup Grass (E. crebra), Kangaroo Grass (T. triandra), Feathertop Wiregrass (tussock grasses), there are a range of shrubs (Conkerberry (C. lanceolata, dominant cover type), Cattle Bush (A. hemiglauca), Bastard Sandalwood (E. mitchellii)) and the single tree species is Brown’s box gum (E. brownii).
The climate of the area is seasonal with 66% of the annual rainfall (MAP around 830 mm) occurring in the wet season months of January to April.
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Purpose
The purpose of the Fletcherview Tropical Rangeland flux station is to: 1) Measure exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapour and energy between a managed tropical savanna and the atmosphere using micrometeorological techniques at a site in North Queensland.
2) Quantify the changes in carbon and water balances of an Australian managed tropical savanna on a long-term basis in the face of climate change.
3) Present the results from the study in real time to the public and inform the public on what these results mean. This flux station provides primary site meteorological data for the Fletcherview Research Station which is a managed cattle grazing field station.
Lineage
Data collected using standard eddy covariance and meteorological instrumentation on a 26.4m tower at the Fletcherview site. The data were quality controlled using the PyFluxPro software package, see Isaac et al. (2017), which is available at
https://github.com/OzFlux/PyFluxPro. Gap filling and partitioning has been done using the ONEFlux software package, see Pastorello et al. 2020, which is available at
https://github.com/fluxnet/ONEFlux.
Procedure Steps1.
Data is measured using standard micro-meteorological instrumentation on a flux tower.
2.
Data is recorded on a data logger and is collected by the site PI.
3.
Data quality control including removal of data outside plausible ranges, removal of spikes, exclusion of particular date ranges and removal of data based on the dependence of one variable on another is done using PyFluxPro.
4.
Filtering for low-ustar conditions, gap filling and partitioning of NEE into GPP and ER are done using ONEFlux.