SuperSites
Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt SuperSite
TERN’s Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt SuperSite is managed and operated by TERN and CSIRO with valued input from the Forestry Corporation of New South Wales. Located in the Bago State Forest, near Batlow, the site is in open wet sclerophyll Eucalypt forest managed for hardwood timber production and is one of the few southern hemisphere sites that has provided records for longer than a decade on the weather, climate, net uptake of CO2 and loss of water via evapotranspiration. We acknowledge and honour all traditional owners past and present of this area, including the Wiradjuri and Ngarigo people, who lived and continue to live on this land.
Site Infrastructure & Characteristics
SuperSite Research Infrastructure
- One eddy-covariance flux tower
- Weather station
- Phenocams
- Soil water content, soil water potential, soil temperature sensors
- COSMOS soil moisture sensor
- Airborne and on-ground LiDAR and hyperspectral imagery calibrated using SLATS star transects, leaf sampling, tree structure and LAI measurements
SuperSite Details
- Vegetation type: Open wet sclerophyll Eucalyptus forest
- Elevation: ~1260 m
- Rainfall: ~1417 mm/yr
- Mean Temperature: ~9.8°C
- Soils: Redoxic Hydrosol
Site Research
The Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt SuperSite is improving understanding of how logging practices affect the amount of carbon and water entering, stored in and leaving the forest, and how these factors in turn influence the ecosystem as a whole. It has been the site of various intensive measurement campaigns to improve our understanding on how airflow, terrain and forest structure affect the way the ecosystem takes up and releases carbon and uses water. As part of this effort, researchers have carried out independent measurements of carbon pools, stocks and turnover rates.
The SuperSite is also a key site for measuring the important effects that vegetation has on the lower atmosphere, including the exchange of heat and the production of particles and chemical species that are highly reactive and contribute to the formation of aerosols.
The Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt SuperSite has been recognised in the world’s top three most globally significant sites for the calibration and validation of satellite-derived Earth observation products by the CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) and their Land Product Validation subgroup (LPV).
Site Partners
Research Publications
Since its inception, TERN’s infrastructure has enabled the publication of more than 1600 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles or books.
