TERN Data Discovery Portal

Description

The far north Queensland microclimate (FNQ-microclim) is an ongoing long-term microclimate monitoring project from across five tropical rainforest sites (Daintree Rainforest SuperSite, Cape Tribulation; Daintree Rainforest SuperSite, Cow Bay; Rex Range; Mt. Lewis National Park; and Mt. Bellenden Ker), located within an elevation range of 40 - 1550 m a.s.l. Microclimate parameters include: a) air temperature (about 15 cm above ground), b) near surface temperature at the interface between soil and air (less than 1 cm above ground), c) top soil temperature (about 8 cm below ground), and d) top soil moisture (up to 10 cm below ground). Data are recorded every 15 minutes using the TMS-4 sensors (Temperature Moisture Sensor, T.M.O.S.T s.r.o, Prague, Czech Republic).

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.

The Skyrail Rainforest Foundation (https://skyrailfoundation.org/funding/) and the Ian Potter Foundation (https://www.ianpotter.org.au/knowledge-centre/grants-database/?start=9530) provided funding for the authors.

This work was jointly funded by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), an Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) project, and the Queensland Government Research Infrastructure Co-investment Fund (RICF).

The Department of Environment and Science, Queensland National Parks is being acknowledged for granting permit to the lead author to conduct scientific research in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

Purpose
The FNQ-microclim project explores microclimatic patterns across elevation gradients in the Australian Wet Tropics (AWT). The high resolution long-term climatic information captured in this dataset are representative of the microclimate experienced by in-situ seeds and seedlings growing on topsoil of tropical rainforest ecosystems. This is part of the author's PhD project which aims at understanding patterns of tree species distributions across elevation gradients in the AWT. The near-surface temperature and soil moisture data in this dataset will be combined with other environmental variables and leaf traits to assess species adaptation, seedling germination ecology, and tolerance to thermal stress which are currently understudied from this bioregion.

All FNQ-microclim data users must refer to the data use Rights and Licensing section and credit the use of the data in any publications.

Lineage

The data sets presented here were captured from the study sites covering a temporal range from 01/12/2019 to 30/09/2022. Detailed methodology of sensor deployment and data retrieval have been documented in the published paper in Austral Ecology (see https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.13584)

Data Creation
Temperature Soil Moisture Sensor (TMS-4) units: Data are captured using the TMS-4 data logger units. These units are programmed to record parameters of interest every 15 minutes. Soil temperature (measured 10 cm below ground), surface temperature (measured at the interface between soil and air, i.e. less than 1 cm above ground) and air temperature (measured 15 cm above ground) are recorded in degrees Celsius. Top soil moisture (measured 10 cm below ground) is recorded by the data logger as raw moisture counts (from 500 to 3500). This is then converted to volumetric soil moisture (VWC in cm³/cm³) using a calibration curve (see metadata information spreadsheet for details).
TMS-4 sensor soil moisture calibration:

TMS-4 sensors are calibrated following manufacturers instructions.

Soil moisture sensors work on a time domain reflectometry and record raw soil counts between 500 (for dry) and 3500 (for 100% saturation). Soil counts were converted into VWC using the protocol developed by manufacturers. Following this protocol, we collected soil from our sites and used it to create a calibration curve. The calibration curve was of a quadratic form (ax²+bx+c) used to convert raw counts from the sensors into VWC as follows: VWC (cm³/cm³) = (0.00000006 * soil moisture count²) + (0.00017 * soil moisture count) - 0.09014). Both raw counts and VWC are included in the data files.

Temporal coverage

From 12/11/2019

Dates

Creation date

2/22/2022

Publication date

3/30/2022

Revision date

12/16/2024

Citation information

How to cite this collection:

Singh Ramesh, A., Cheesman, A. & Cernusak, L. (2022): Far North Queensland Microclimate Data. Version 1.0. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. (Dataset). https://portal.tern.org.au/metadata/TERN/56be85d3-94fa-4e8b-b249-e4862fa3b5a6

Access data

These data can be accessed from following links:

Access metadata

Point-of-truth metadata URL

Rights and Licensing

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

TERN services are provided on an “as-is” and “as available” basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure.

Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN.

Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting.

All FNQ-microclim data users must credit the use of the data in any publications. We recommend that those interested in using these data sets contact the authors to discuss the possibility of co-authorship and in line with The FAIR Data Principles.