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TERN Ecosystem Surveillance: Soil Pit Sample

<p>This dataset comprises a comprehensive archive of soil pit samples collected from TERN Ecosystem Surveillance monitoring plots across Australia. Soil is characterised from a 1-meter soil pit located near the southwest corner of each 1-hectare monitoring plot. A soil sample is collected down the soil profile from each recognised horizon, and are collected as part of the soil characterisation process including detailed morphological and profile descriptions. Collected following the standardised Ecosystem Surveillance methodology, the dataset includes over 5,800 soil pit samples archived in the TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection, located at the University of Adelaide's Waite Campus.</p>


<p>Each record includes detailed metadata such as voucher barcode for soil collected from each horizon at the soil pit, site and visit information and sampling details. Soil pit samples are accessible and available for loan upon request through the EcoPlots Samples portal via an Expression of Interest.</p>

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2011-06-16
Date (Publication)
2025-06-17
Date (Revision)
2025-12-10
Edition
1.0

Publisher

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097

Author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Sparrow, Ben (Director - TERN Ausplots and Eco-informatics)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Tokmakoff, Andrew (Technical Lead)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Leitch, Emrys (Senior Botanist and Field Lead)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Guerin, Greg ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - O'Neill, Sally (Scientific Officer)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Macdonald, Christina (Data Project Officer)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Lowe, Andy (Professor)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Flitton, Rick ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Saleeba, Tom (software developer/solution architect)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Coish, Caleb (Business Manager)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Starkey, Michael ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Irvine, Katie ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Francis, Nikki ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Finlayson, Tamara ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Pink, Lachlan ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Finn, Luke ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Martin-Fores, Irene ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia
Website
https://www.tern.org.au/

Purpose
<p>TERN Ecosystem Surveillance is a national plot-based field monitoring program that tracks the direction and magnitude of change across Australia’s major biomes. Information on soils and vegetation is collected according to standardised, widely endorsed and consistent protocols across all plots, and includes the collection of soil and vegetation samples and specimens for subsequent analysis.</p> <p>TERN soil pit samples are collected from across the TERN Australia network of 960 monitoring sites nationally, with 410 plot revisits. Large areas of Australia lack sufficient soil information, TERN Ecosystem Surveillance address this gap by collecting standardised soil characterisation information and associated soil samples. Soil pit samples are made available to researchers for future ecological and environmental studies. Soil pit samples enable in-depth characterisation of soil morphology, structure, and stratification, and contribute valuable data to national and international soil information systems.</p> <p>The soil pit samples support the interpretation of soil horizons and physical properties. The archived samples and associated profile descriptions serve as long-term, open-access reference material to support ecological, agricultural, and environmental research across Australia. The samples collected are a once-off snapshot in time. Generally, the quantities allowable for loan are selectable from the following categories (0-10g, 10-20g, 20-60g, 60g-100g). The quantity required for loan will depend on the type of analysis required. The TERN soil pit samples are all archived in the TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection.</p>
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.
Credit
<p></p>Datasets funded by TERN include the following statement “This work was jointly funded by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), an Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) project.
Status
On going

Point of contact

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Lewis, Donna ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite Road
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Point of contact

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Steen, Carly ()
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite Road
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Point of contact

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite Road
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia
Topic category
  • Environment

Extent

Description
Australia's major biomes
N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
2011-06-16
Title
AusPlots Rangelands Survey Protocols Manual
Website
AusPlots Rangelands Survey Protocols Manual

Related documentation

Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
GCMD Science Keywords
  • SOILS
  • ARCHIVING
  • TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
  • LAND SURFACE
ANZSRC Fields of Research
  • Soil sciences
  • Archival, repository and related studies
TERN Parameter Vocabulary
  • soil electrical conductivity
  • Decisiemens per Metre
  • soil pH
  • Unitless
  • soil fabric
  • Unitless
  • soil effervescence
  • Unitless
  • soil texture grade
  • Unitless
  • lithology of coarse fragments
  • Unitless
  • abundance of segregations
  • Unitless
  • abundance of coarse fragments
  • Unitless
  • smallest peds size
  • Millimetre
  • size of coarse fragments
  • Unitless
  • mottle abundance
  • Unitless
  • grade of pedality
  • Unitless
  • nature of segregations
  • Unitless
  • form of segregations
  • Unitless
  • mottle colour
  • Unitless
  • size of segregations
  • Unitless
  • mottle size
  • Unitless
  • shape of coarse fragments
  • Unitless
  • second smallest peds pedality type
  • Unitless
  • soil horizon
  • Unitless
  • wet soil colour
  • Unitless
QUDT Units of Measure
  • Decisiemens per Metre
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Millimetre
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
  • Point Resolution
GCMD Vertical Resolution Ranges
  • < 1 meter
GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
  • one off
Keywords (Discipline)
  • TERN Ecosystem Surveillance
  • Soil Pit Sample

Resource constraints

Use limitation
The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
File name
88x31.png
File description
CCBy Logo from creativecommons.org
File type
png
Linkage
https://w3id.org/tern/static/cc-by/88x31.png

Title
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
Alternate title
CC-BY
Edition
4.0
Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
TERN services are provided on an "as-is" and "as available" basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure. <br />Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN. <br /><br />Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting
Other constraints
Please cite this dataset as {Author} ({PublicationYear}). {Title}. {Version, as appropriate}. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. {Identifier}.
Other constraints
<p> TERN provides data, samples and site-based research infrastructure freely to Australian and international scientific communities. In recognition of these research services, we ask that when you use them, you acknowledge NCRIS-enabled TERN. </p><p> Reporting on the use of digital assets and research infrastructure is a key performance indicator for TERN. The simple step of acknowledging TERN enables us to record that the infrastructure is being used, and helps TERN to continue to be funded to deliver long term ecological monitoring data and samples.</p>
Other constraints
<p><strong>Acknowledging TERN and NCRIS in publications</strong></p> <p>Data was sourced from Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) infrastructure, which is enabled by the Australian Government&rsquo;s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).</p> <p>If you have any questions about TERN or NCRIS acknowledgements or would like copies of logos or branding guidelines please contact us tern@uq.edu.au.</p> <p>Please send TERN copies of papers, books, book chapters, and conference papers etc. that have been created using any of our data as soon as possible after their acceptance. This allows us to easily track the use of our infrastructure and enables us to list your publication on our website increasing the exposure of your research.</p>

Resource constraints

Classification
Unclassified

Distribution Information

Distribution format

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia
Indooroopilly
Queensland
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
TERN EcoPlots Portal: Soil Pit Sample

OnLine resource
ro-crate-metadata.json

Resource lineage

Statement
<p>Soil pit samples are collected at intervals down the soil profile (~1m), within horizons at one location in the southwest corner at a plot. Additional supporting data is gathered at the pit and in the TERN lab, including soil classification, bulk density, pH and electrical conductivity (EC). Soil pit samples can be used for physical and chemical analyses. Before storage, samples are oven dried at 40 <sup>o</sup>C for approximately 48 hours, sieved, ground and then stored in sealed containers. Samples are organised by plot location and stored under ambient temperature conditions in the TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection. For each horizon recognised down the soil profile, a sample from each horizon is collected (~500g per horizon).</p> <p>For detailed methods on soil pit sample collection, refer to the <a href="https://ternaus.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TERNSup/pages/1193738270/AusPlots+Rangelands+Manual+v1.2.9">AusPlots Rangelands Survey Protocols Manual</a>.</p>
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Title
Ausplots Rangelands Survey Protocols Manual
Website
https://ternaus.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TERNSup/pages/1193738270/AusPlots+Rangelands+Manual+v1.2.9

Method documentation

Reference System Information

Reference system identifier
EPSG/EPSG:4326

Reference system type
Geodetic Geographic 2D

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/a8456857-357d-40c6-b33d-43d107a956b3

Title
TERN GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Point of contact

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097
Title
TERN Ecosystem Surveillance

Identifier

Code
9210c331-ba96-4e0c-9554-f029d61534be
Codespace
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/
Description
Parent Metadata Record

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset
Metadata linkage
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a8456857-357d-40c6-b33d-43d107a956b3

Point-of-truth metadata URL

Date info (Creation)
2025-06-10T00:00:00.000000+00:00
Date info (Revision)
2025-12-10T10:21:56.432268+00:00

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-1:2014/AMD 1:2018 Geographic information - Metadata - Fundamentals
Edition
1

Metadata standard

Title
ISO/TS 19115-3:2016
Edition
1.0

Metadata standard

Title
ISO/TS 19157-2:2016
Edition
1.0
Title
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-3:2016 and ISO 19157-2:2016
Date (published)
2021
Edition
1.0

Identifier

Code
10.5281/zenodo.5652221
Website
https://github.com/ternaustralia/TERN-ISO19115/releases/tag/v1.0

 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

ANZSRC Fields of Research
Archival, repository and related studies Soil sciences
GCMD Science Keywords
ARCHIVING LAND SURFACE SOILS TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS

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Access to the portal
Read here the full details and access to the data.

Associated resources

Not available


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