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 (v3.5.0) as described by Isaac et al. (2017). PyFluxPro produces a final, gap-filled product with Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) partitioned into Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) and Ecosystem Respiration (ER).
Fletcherview Tropical Rangeland SuperSite was established in 2021 at James Cook University’s Fletcherview Research Station, a fully operational outback cattle station located 50 km west of Townsville, Queensland. The site is used for cattle grazing and is characterised by tall open savanna. The vegetation is dominated by native grasses such as blackspear and kangaroo grasses, as well as introduced species like buffel grass, signal grass and leucaena. Fletcherview typically experiences a dry and wet season, with most rainfall occurring between January and 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.
Fletcherview Tropical Rangeland SuperSite is managed by James Cook University. Infrastructure at the site was funded under the Queensland Government’s Research Infrastructure Co-Investment Fund (RICF) for co-investment to the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), a project of the Commonwealth’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). This site is part of OzFlux Australia.
Purpose
The purpose of Fletcherview Tropical Rangeland flux station is to:
- measure the exchange of carbon dioxide, water vapour and energy between a tropical, semi-arid savanna ecosystem and the atmosphere using micrometeorological techniques
- support an understanding of forage dynamics on an active cattle station
- support critical zone science, specifically those related to soil processes, hydrology and evaporation
- support an understanding of environmental variability on ecosystem processes (such as photosynthesis, respiration or changes in plant structure and function)
- provide a contextual basis for understanding patterns of plant and animal biodiversity (e.g. abiotic factors)
- utilise the measurements for parameterising forage and grazing models
- utilise the measurements for parameterising and validating remote sensing measurements over semi-arid savanna ecosystems
- utilise the measurements for parameterising and validating the Earth System models to better understand the effects of climate change.
Data Processing
File naming convention
The NetCDF files follow the naming convention below:
SiteName_ProcessingLevel_FromDate_ToDate_Type.nc
- SiteName: short name of the site
- ProcessingLevel: file processing level (L3, L4, L5, L6)
- FromDate: temporal interval (start), YYYYMMDD
- ToDate: temporal interval (end), YYYYMMDD
- Type (Level 6 only): Summary, Monthly, Daily, Cumulative, Annual
- Summary: This file is a summary of the L6 data for daily, monthly, annual and cumulative data. The files Monthly to Annual below are combined together in one file.
- Monthly: This file shows L6 monthly averages of the respective variables, e.g. AH, Fc, NEE, etc.
- Daily: same as Monthly but with daily averages.
- Cumulative: File showing cumulative values for ecosystem respiration, evapo-transpiration, gross primary product, net ecosystem exchange and production as well as precipitation.
- Annual: same as Monthly but with annual averages.
Lineage
All flux raw data is subject to the quality control process OzFlux QA/QC to generate data from L1 to L6. Levels 3 to 6 are available for re-use. Datasets contain Quality Controls flags which will indicate when data quality is poor and has been filled from alternative sources. For more details, refer to Isaac et al. (2017).
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