TERN Ecosystem Surveillance: Plant Tissue Sample
This dataset comprises a comprehensive collection of plant tissue samples representing vascular plants sampled from TERN Ecosystem Surveillance monitoring plots across Australia. Derived from the plant voucher specimens, these tissue samples are critical for accurate species identification and verification, supporting a complete inventory of vascular plant species at each plot. They also serve as reference material for DNA barcoding and stable isotope analyses. Collected following the standardised Ecosystem Surveillance methodology, the dataset includes over 76,000 archived samples housed at the TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection, located at the University of Adelaide's Waite Campus.<br></br>
Each record includes detailed metadata such as voucher barcode, site and visit information and sampling details. Plant tissue samples are accessible and available for loan upon request through the EcoPlots Samples portal via an Expression of Interest.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2010-10-30
- Date (Publication)
- 2025-06-17
- Date (Revision)
- 2025-12-11
- Edition
- 1.0
Publisher
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 plant tissue samples are collected from across the TERN Australia network of of 960 monitoring sites nationally, with 410 plot revisits. The samples are part of the TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection at the University of Adelaide's Waite Campus. The collection is temporal and is associated with rich data including vegetation community, plant species and soil characteristics. This growing library of field samples is open to researchers, offering valuable resources for a range of studies.</p> <p>The collection of plant tissue samples, and associated data, is undertaken in collaboration with Australian states and territories. Plant tissue samples are sub-sampled from the plant voucher specimens which are determined by herbarium identification botanists. The plant tissue samples are accessioned at 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.
- Status
- On going
Point of contact
University of Adelaide - 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
-
- Biota
- 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
- ANZSRC Fields of Research
- TERN Parameter Vocabulary
- QUDT Units of Measure
- GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
- GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
- Australian Plant Name Index
- Keywords (Discipline)
-
- Herbarium
- Plant Tissue Sample
- Plant Voucher Specimen
- 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
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
- CC-BY
- Edition
- 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’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
- Plant Tissue Samples Data Collection
- OnLine resource
- ro-crate-metadata.json
Resource lineage
- Statement
- Plant tissue samples are sampled from each plant voucher specimen collected in the plot and are referred to as the primary voucher. For the four dominant species in the plot, additional tissue samples are collected from four other individual plants for population genetics, and are referred to as secondary vouchers (1, 2, 3, 4). Plant tissue samples can be used for genetic, molecular, and isotopic analyses. In the field, each sample is placed in a synthetic tea filter bag and stored in a sealed plastic container with silica gel. Long term storage of plant tissue samples is in the TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection’s cool room at 17<sup>o</sup>C. Silica gel is monitored and replaced when needed.<br></br> A subset of the methods specific to vegetation vouchering is available on the TERN Linked Data Viewer <a href="http://linked.data.gov.au/def/ausplots-cv/a526b5c5-5931-4460-ba17-68c0fcc3e710">AusPlots Methods: Genetic and Isotope Sample Vouchering</a>.
- 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/cef4e145-79d5-460d-9217-d9d5f1e63d14
- Title
- TERN GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
- Title
- TERN Ecosystem Surveillance
Identifier
- 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/cef4e145-79d5-460d-9217-d9d5f1e63d14
Point-of-truth metadata URL
- Date info (Creation)
- 2025-06-12T00:00:00.000000+00:00
- Date info (Revision)
- 2025-12-11T22:57:15.613352+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
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available