Field Observatory
TERN infrastructure observes, records and measures critical terrestrial ecosystem parameters and conditions for Australia over time from continental scale to field sites at hundreds of representative locations.
TERN ecosystem observing sites. NB: the maps also shows eddy covariance towers in Australia and New Zealand that are not solely funded by TERN but contribute to the international FLUXNET dataset. TERN, via its Australian Government NCRIS funding, is an Australia-only observatory and sites in New Zealand are funded via other initiatives.
The TERN ecosystem field observatory is structured around three key scales of observation:
TERN Landscapes
Based on remote sensing techniques, provides spatial data products at regional and continental scales of landcover, landscapes and soil attributes to characterise and monitor Australian ecosystems.
TERN Ecosystem
Surveillance
A plot-based field monitoring capability, which tracks the direction and magnitude of change in Australia’s environments using data and samples on soils and vegetation.
TERN Ecosystem
Processes
Delivers TERN’s core long-term, time series data for detecting change in Australia’s ecosystems from observations and instruments at representative ecosystem reference sites to facilitate understanding of ecosystem processes.
TERN’s Data Services and Analytics platform manages datasets derived from its terrestrial ecosystem field observatory. TERN data infrastructure also enables the Australian community of ecosystem researchers to collect, contribute, store and share data.
