Brief description
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 as described by Isaac et al. (2017) for the quality control and post-processing steps. The final, gap-filled product containing Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) partitioned into Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) and Ecosystem Respiration (ER) has been produced using the ONEFlux software as described in Pastorello et al. (2020). This data set has been produced as part of the FLUXNET Shuttle project.
The Fletcherview Tropical Rangeland flux station commenced continuous collection of data in January 2022. The flux tower is located at the Fletcherview Reseach Station, 90 km south-west of Townsville in the Burdekin Catchment in North Queensland and its managed by James Cook University.
The tower is located at the Fletcherview Research Station, a grazed savanna woodland of 1960 Ha located in the Burdekin Basin that typically stocks around 600 head of Brahman cattle. The station is located on a 2.5 km stretch of the Burdekin River, one of the largest river systems in Queensland. There are three ephemeral creek systems (Lolworth Creek, Pandanus Creek and Hann Creek) on Fletcherview Station. The flux station is located in an area where shallow gilgai micro-relief is a predominant surface feature with shallow depressions and mounds. The soils on the mounds are described as Dermosols and soils on the depressions are described as Vertosols.
Vegetation structural summary: Eucalyptus brownii low open woodland (11 m). A taller mid storey of younger Eucalyptus brownii, Eremophila mitchellii and Atalaya hemiglauca (6 m) and a denser lower mid storey dominated by Carissa lanceolata (0.6 m). A ground storey dominated by Bothriochloa sp., Bothriochloa pertusa and Sporobolus australasicus (0.2-0.6 m) with Urochloa mosambicensis, Eriochloa crebra and Themeda triandra.
The tower is located to the north of a 1 Ha plot established by TERN Surveillance in 2021 - Plot QDAEIU0008. The soil in this plot is a medium heavy clay and has a bulk density of 1.7 g/cm3. The common names of plant species found in this plot are Indian Bluegrass (B. pertusa), Australian Dropseed (S. australasicus), Sabi Grass (U. mosambicensis), Cup Grass (E. crebra), Kangaroo Grass (T. triandra), Feathertop Wiregrass (tussock grasses), there are a range of shrubs (Conkerberry (C. lanceolata, dominant cover type), Cattle Bush (A. hemiglauca), Bastard Sandalwood (E. mitchellii)) and the single tree species is Brown’s box gum (E. brownii).
The climate of the area is seasonal with 66% of the annual rainfall (MAP around 830 mm) occurring in the wet season months of January to April.
Lineage
Data collected using standard eddy covariance and meteorological instrumentation on a 26.4m tower at the Fletcherview site. The data were quality controlled using the PyFluxPro software package, see Isaac et al. (2017), which is available at https://github.com/OzFlux/PyFluxPro. Gap filling and partitioning has been done using the ONEFlux software package, see Pastorello et al. 2020, which is available at https://github.com/fluxnet/ONEFlux.Data Creation
Data is measured using standard micro-meteorological instrumentation on a flux tower.
Data is recorded on a data logger and is collected by the site PI.
Data quality control including removal of data outside plausible ranges, removal of spikes, exclusion of particular date ranges and removal of data based on the dependence of one variable on another is done using PyFluxPro.
Filtering for low-ustar conditions, gap filling and partitioning of NEE into GPP and ER are done using ONEFlux.
Notes
CreditWe 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.
The purpose of the Fletcherview Tropical Rangeland flux station is to:
1) Measure exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapour and energy between a managed tropical savanna and the atmosphere using micrometeorological techniques at a site in North Queensland.
2) Quantify the changes in carbon and water balances of an Australian managed tropical savanna on a long-term basis in the face of climate change.
3) Present the results from the study in real time to the public and inform the public on what these results mean.
This flux station provides primary site meteorological data for the Fletcherview Research Station which is a managed cattle grazing field station.
Data Quality Assessment Scope
local :
dataset
The data have been quality controlled using the PyFluxPro software. Quality control checks applied to the data include:<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>range checks for plausible limits</li>
<li>spike detection and removal</li>
<li>dependency on other variables</li>
<li>manual rejection of date ranges</li></ul>
<br>
Specific checks applied to the sonic and IRGA data including rejection of points based on the sonic and IRGA diagnostic values and on either automatic gain control (AGC) or CO2 and H2O signal strength, depending upon the configuration of the IRGA.</br>
<br>If the data quality is poor, the meteorological data is filled from ERA5 reanalysis data and fluxes are filled using the Marginal Distribution Sampling method. Filled data can be identified by the Quality Controls flags in the dataset. </br>
<br>The ONEFlux software used to gap fill and partition this data set also applies a Median Absolute Deviation (MAD) filter to the carbon dioxide, latent heat and sensible heat before the gap filling step.</br>
Isaac P., Cleverly J., McHugh I., van Gorsel E., Ewenz C. and Beringer, J. (2017). Oz
doi :
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2903-2017
Data Quality Assessment Result
local :
Quality Result
No anomalous data detected after quality control.
Created: 2026-03-13
Issued: 2026-04-07
Modified: 2026-04-07
Data time period: 2022-01-01 to 2026-01-01
text: The Fletcherview flux tower is located in managed tropical savanna, approximately 90 km south-west of Townsville in North Queensland.
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Point-of-truth metadata URL
Isaac P., Cleverly J., McHugh I., van Gorsel E., Ewenz C. and Beringer, J. (2017). OzFlux data: network integration from collection to curation,
doi :
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2903-2017
PyFluxPro
uri :
https://github.com/OzFlux/PyFluxPro
ONEFlux
uri :
https://github.com/fluxnet/ONEFlux
Pastorello, G., Trotta, C., Canfora, E. et al. The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data. Sci Data 7, 225 (2020).
- URI : geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/4ea3d3fa-f10e-4d44-9717-d9ef907008cd
- global : 4ea3d3fa-f10e-4d44-9717-d9ef907008cd
