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Data

TERN Ecosystem Process Site Vegetation Decomposition Tea Bag Index Data 2016 - 2017 

Ver: 1.0
Status of Data: completed
Update Frequency: notPlanned
Security Classification: unclassified
Record Last Modified: 2025-12-02
Viewed 217 times
Accessed 6 times
Dataset Created: 2016-09-18
Dataset Published: 2023-03-10
Data can be accessed from the following links:
HTTPPoint-of-truth metadata URLHTTPTERN_sites_vegetation_decomposition_tea_bag_index_data_dictionaryHTTPTERN_sites_vegetation_decomposition_tea_bag_index_dataHTTPro-crate-metadata.json
How to cite this collection:
Karan, M., Grace, P., Rowlings, D., Prober, S., Liddell, M., Boer, M., Stol, J. & Wardlaw, T. (2023). TERN Ecosystem Process Site Vegetation Decomposition Tea Bag Index Data 2016 - 2017. Version 1.0. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. https://dx.doi.org/10.25901/yzv4-2726 
Plant material decomposition in soil was investigated using two types of tea bags (Green and Rooibos) buried to 8 cm for 80-90 days across seven TERN Ecosystem Process monitoring sites between 2016 - 2017. The sites included: Great Western Woodlands, Robson Creek Rainforest, Samford Peri-Urban, Cumberland Plain, Cape Tribulation, Warra Tall Eucalypt and Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt sites. Weight loss of tea bags was determined and contextual data collected. 
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
This experiment aligns with, and contributed to a citizen science program (www.teatime4science.org) looking at decomposition rates around the world. 
Lineage
This tea bag index study was conducted using the protocol from the Tea Time 4 Science project (http://www.teatime4science.org/). 
Method DocumentationTea Time for Science Protocol
Procedure StepsData not provided.
Sites include: Great Western Woodlands, Robson Creek Rainforest, Samford Peri-Urban, Cumberland Plain, Cape Tribulation, Warra Tall Eucalypt and Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt sites.
Temporal Coverage
From 2016-09-18 to 2017-04-11 
Spatial Resolution

Data not provided.

Vertical Extent

Data not provided.

ANZSRC - FOR
Ecology
Ecosystem function
Soil sciences
Terrestrial ecology
GCMD Sciences
BIOSPHERE - DECOMPOSITION
BIOSPHERE - VEGETATION
Horizontal Resolution
1 meter - < 30 meters
Parameters
root depth
soil carbon content
soil depth
soil texture
soil total nitrogen content
Platforms
Cumberland Plain
Cumberland Plain, core1ha
Daintree Rainforest, Cape Tribulation
Daintree Rainforest, Cape Tribulation, core1ha
Great Western Woodlands
Great Western Woodlands, core1ha
Robson Creek Rainforest
Robson Creek, core1ha
Samford Peri-urban
Samford Peri-urban, core1ha
Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt
Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt, core1ha
Warra Tall Eucalypt
Warra Tall Eucalypt, core1ha
Temporal Resolution
one off
Topic
biota
environment
User Defined
Cape Tribulation
Cumberland Plain
Great Western Woodlands
Plant decomposition
Robson Creek Rainforest
Samford Peri-Urban
Tea Bag Index
Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt
Warra Tall Eucalypt
Author
Karan, Mirko
Co-Author
Grace, Peter
Rowlings, David
Prober, Suzanne Mary
Liddell, Michael
Boer, Matthias
Stol, Jacqui
Wardlaw, Tim
Contact Point
Karan, Mirko
Publisher
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Keuskamp, J.A., Dingemans, B.J.J., Lehtinen, T., Sarneel, J.M. and Hefting, M.M. (2013), Tea Bag Index: a novel approach to collect uniform decomposition data across ecosystems. Methods Ecol Evol, 4: 1070-1075. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12097
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
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Please note: This data has been migrated “as is” from TERN’s SuperSite data portal. Minimal quality assessment has been applied to this data. Please contact the dataset author/s for queries regarding the data. 
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