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TERN Ecosystem Surveillance: Land Surface

<p>This dataset lists land surface characteristics observed in Rangeland sites across Australia by the TERN Ecosystem Surveillance team, using standardised AusPlots methodologies.</p>

<p>Land surface observations are collected at each site as part of the AusPlots method. At each site, observations on ground cover, lithology, erosion (state, extent, and human accelerated), surface drainage, microrelief, aspect and angle are recorded as part of the Ausplots Ground cover and Plot description methods.</p>

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2010-10-30
Date (Publication)
2025-06-16
Date (Revision)
2025-12-11
Edition
2.0

Publisher

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

Co-author

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

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 - 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>Land surface observations provide accurate information about land surface parameters useful to benchmark remote sensing products. </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
2010-10-30
Title
Ausplots Rangelands Survey Protocols Manual
Website
Ausplots Rangelands Survey Protocols Manual

Related documentation

Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
GCMD Science Keywords
  • EROSION
  • DEGRADATION
  • VEGETATION COVER
  • LAND USE/LAND COVER
ANZSRC Fields of Research
  • Forest biodiversity
TERN Parameter Vocabulary
  • accelerated erosion
  • Unitless
  • aspect angle
  • Degree
  • disturbance (event)
  • Unitless
  • outcrop lithology
  • Unitless
  • soil drainage type
  • Unitless
  • wind erosion extent
  • Unitless
  • ground cover
  • Percent
  • bare ground cover
  • Percent
  • cryptogam ground cover
  • Percent
  • coarse woody debris cover
  • Percent
  • gravel ground cover
  • Percent
  • green ground cover
  • Percent
  • litter ground cover
  • Percent
  • outcrop ground cover
  • Percent
  • rock ground cover
  • Percent
  • microrelief
  • Unitless
  • slope angle
  • Degree
  • state of erosion
  • Unitless
  • subdominant substrate lithology
  • Unitless
  • surface strew lithology
  • Unitless
  • surface strew size
  • Unitless
QUDT Units of Measure
  • Unitless
  • Degree
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Percent
  • Percent
  • Percent
  • Percent
  • Percent
  • Percent
  • Percent
  • Percent
  • Percent
  • Unitless
  • Degree
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
  • Unitless
GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
  • 30 meters - < 100 meters
GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
  • Decadal
Keywords (Discipline)
  • TERN Ecosystem Surveillance

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
<p>Attribution and citation is required in any publication that uses AusPlots data. We ask you to send citations and copies of publications arising from work that use these data to <a href="mailto:ben.sparrow@adelaide.edu.au">ben.sparrow@adelaide.edu.au</a>, copy <a href="mailto:esupport@tern.org.au">esupport@tern.org.au</a>&nbsp;or advise via the online form at <a href="https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting">https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting</a></p> <p>These data have been released in the spirit of open scientific collaboration. Data users are encouraged to consider consultation with ben.sparrow@adelaide.edu.au to minimize duplication of research.</p>
Other constraints
<p>TERN services are provided on an &ldquo;as-is&rdquo; and &ldquo;as available&rdquo; 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.</p> <p>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.</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

OnLine resource
TERN EcoPlots API

OnLine resource
ro-crate-metadata.json

Resource lineage

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

Process step

Description
AusPlots Rangelands Protocols - Land surface: <ul> <li><a href="http://linked.data.gov.au/def/tern-cv/1ae719f6-93f2-494c-822d-2631b1d3e6c3">Ground cover</a></li> <li><a href="http://linked.data.gov.au/def/ausplots-cv/74615bb8-9cc5-4a63-868b-3258108ffcb4">Plot description</a></li> </ul>

Reference System Information

Reference system identifier
EPSG/EPSG:4326

Reference system type
Geodetic Geographic 2D

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/bb91c732-873b-457f-9d81-aa671e3fda12

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/bb91c732-873b-457f-9d81-aa671e3fda12

Point-of-truth metadata URL

Date info (Creation)
2010-10-30T00:00:00.000000+00:00
Date info (Revision)
2025-12-11T22:53:16.506220+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
Forest biodiversity
GCMD Science Keywords
DEGRADATION EROSION LAND USE/LAND COVER VEGETATION COVER

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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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