TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection
TERN’s field sample library & open access repository contains tens of thousands of soil samples, soil metagenomic samples, plant voucher specimens, plant samples and plant genetic material collected from TERN’s national network of over 1000 ecosystem surveillance monitoring sites. The repository is openly available to interested researchers.
Soil samples are held by TERN’s Ecosystem Surveillance platform at the University of Adelaide.
Plant samples collected by TERN are contributed to national, state and regional herbaria across Australia, with many of the samples stored by TERN’s Ecosystem Surveillance platform.
To discuss opportunities to use our soil and plant samples please contact us, or download a specimen loan application form.
What's available?
Updated July 2022
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Plant voucher specimens – 51,177
Representing about 24.2% of Australia’s vascular flora. Voucher specimens of all vascular plant species are collected at each plot. Voucher specimens are identified and lodged at the identifying herbarium, the Australian National Herbarium, or in the TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection housed at the University of Adelaide. -
Leaf tissue samples – 69,462
These curated samples are available to be used in molecular analysis, stable isotopic analysis, biochemical work, and ecophysiology and functional ecology research. All plant tissue samples are identified by a herbarium botanist, resolvable to a vouchered specimen, rapidly dried to preserve DNA and stored in synthetic gauze in the TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection at the University of Adelaide. -
Soil samples – 21,645 500g samples
Soil characterisations are available, including soil classification, bulk density, pH and salinity. Soil samples (to 1m) are also available for additional analysis. -
Soil metagenomics samples – 9,639
Soil samples for metagenomic analysis are collected from 9 sub-sites at each TERN survey plot. Metagenomics is the study of genetic material recovered directly from environmental samples. Soil metagenomics provides the opportunity to understand what organisms are present at survey plots and provides an indication of their abundance.
A guide to using our samples
TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection samples are freely available to the Australian and international scientific communities to conduct research. All we ask is that when you use them, and our open access data, you acknowledge NCRIS-enabled TERN.
This simple step lets TERN record that Australia’s research infrastructure is being used to generate important outputs and outcomes, which helps TERN to continue being funded and available to you.
For more information on how to acknowledge TERN and NCRIS in publications and self-report your use of TERN, visit our research publications page.
To discuss opportunities to use our plant samples and soil samples please contact us, or download a specimen loan application form.
