The soil in terrestrial and blue carbon ecosystems (BCE; mangroves, tidal marshes, seagrasses) is a significant carbon (C) sink. National assessments of C inventories are needed to protect them and aid nature-based strategies to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide. We harmonised measurements from Australia's terrestrial and BCE and, using consistent multi-scale spatial machine learning, unravelled the drivers of soil organic carbon (SOC) variation and digitally mapped their stocks. The modelling shows that climate and vegetation are continentally the primary drivers of SOC variation. But the underlying regional drivers are ecosystem type, terrain, clay content, mineralogy, and nutrients. The digital soil maps indicate that in the 0-30 cm soil layer, terrestrial ecosystems hold 27.6 Gt (19.6-39.0 Gt), and BCE 0.35 Gt (0.20-0.62 Gt). Tall open eucalypt and mangrove forests have the largest mean SOC per unit area. Eucalypt woodlands and hummock grassland, which occupy vast areas, store the largest total SOC stock. These ecosystems constitute important regions for conservation, emissions avoidance, and preservation because they also provide additional co-benefits.

This dataset includes volumetric soil water content measured across soil pits in the lowland rainforest of Cape Tribulation. Data were acquired using time-domain reflectometry (TDR) probes recording at soil surface (10 cm) and at depths (50, 100 and 150 cm) at 4 control points - PB1 and PB8 are in the SW quadrant of the crane plot, PB2 and PB5 are in the NW quadrant of the crane plot.

Ground layer vascular plant species identity and projective foliage cover (PFC) data were collected from four permanently marked 50x10 metre plots in north Queensland on a three monthly frequency for three years. Ten 0.5 square metre quadrats were used for sampling at each occasion at each site and the data pooled and averaged. Refer to Neldner, V.J., Kirkwood, A.B. and Collyer, B.S. (2004). Optimum time for sampling floristic diversity in tropical eucalypt woodlands of northern Queensland. The Rangeland Journal 26: 190-203 for more information. Note: Spreadsheet compiled in 2021 from original data collection records.

This dataset contains UAV multispectral imagery collected as part of a field trial to test the Unmanned Aerial System to be used for the TERN Drone project. The UAS platform is DJI Matrice 300 RTK with 2 sensors: Zenmuse P1 (35 mm) RGB mapping camera and Micasense RedEdge-MX (5-band multispectral sensor). P1 imagery were geo-referenced using the onboard GNSS in M300 and the D-RTK 2 Mobile Station. P1 Camera positions were post-processed using <a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/positioning-navigation/geodesy/auspos">AUSPOS</a>. The flights took place between 14:58 and 03:08 at a height of 80m with a flying speed set to 5 m/s. Forward and side overlaps of photographs were set to 80%. <br><br> Micasense multispectral sensor positions were interpolated using P1, following which a standard workflow was followed in Agisoft Metashape to generate this orthomosaic (resolution 5 cm). Reflectance calibration was performed using captures of the MicaSense Calibration Panel taken before the flight. The orthomosaic raster has the relative reflectance (no unit) for the 5 bands (B, G, R, RedEdge, NIR). This cloud optimised (COG) GeoTIFF was created using rio command line interface. The coordinate reference system of the COG is EPSG 7855 - GDA2020 MGA Zone 55. <br><br> In the raw data RedEdge-MX image file suffixes correspond to bands like so - 1: Blue, 2: Green, 3: Red, 4: NIR, 5: Red Edge. However, in the processed Orthomoasic GeoTIFF, the bands are ordered in the wavelength order (Blue, Green, Red, Red Edge, NIR).

This dataset contains UAV multispectral imagery collected as part of a field trial to test the Uncrewed Aerial System to be used for the TERN Drone project. The UAS platform is DJI Matrice 300 RTK with 2 sensors: Zenmuse P1 (35 mm) RGB mapping camera and Micasense RedEdge-MX Dual (10-band multispectral sensor). P1 imagery were geo-referenced using the onboard GNSS in M300 and the D-RTK 2 Mobile Station. P1 Camera positions were post-processed using <a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/positioning-navigation/geodesy/auspos">AUSPOS</a>. Flight conducted between 10:26 am and 10:47 am AEDT at flying height 80 m, forward and side overlaps for Zenmuse P1 set to 80%. MicaSense RedEdge-MX Dual triggered using timer mode (every second). <br><br> Micasense multispectral sensor positions were interpolated using P1, following which a standard workflow was followed in Agisoft Metashape to generate this orthomosaic (resolution 5 cm). Reflectance calibration was performed using captures of the MicaSense Calibration Panel taken before the flight. The orthomosaic raster has the relative reflectance (no unit) for the 10 bands (Coastal Blue, Blue, Green 531, Green, Red 650, Red, RedEdge 705, RedEdge, RedEdge 740, NIR). The cloud optimised (COG) GeoTIFF was created using rio command line interface. The coordinate reference system of the COG is EPSG 7855 - GDA2020 MGA Zone 55. <br><br> In the raw data RedEdge-MX image file suffixes correspond to bands like so - 1: Blue, 2: Green, 3: Red, 4: NIR, 5: Red Edge, 6: Coastal Blue, 7: Green 531, 8: Red 650, 9: RedEdge 705, 10: RedEdge 740. However, in the processed Orthomoasic GeoTIFF, the bands 1-10 are ordered as per the Central Wavelength (Coastal Blue, Blue, Green 531, Green, Red 650, Red, RedEdge 705, RedEdge, RedEdge 740, NIR).

The acquisition of sunphotometer measurements are critical to capture vital data on atmospheric properties during airborne hyperspectral imaging campaigns as well as for measurements coinciding with the overpass of satellite sensors. The atmospheric properties measured are used in atmospheric correction of the remotely sensed image data. This data is primarily for input into atmospheric correction systems. It may also prove of use in validation of aerosol products such as MOD04 and the reflectance change method developed as part of CRC-SI project 4.1 which may be integrated into the Auscover 19 band reflectance product processing. It can also be used to check methods that produce water vapour directly from the data (SODA). The MicroTops instruments referred to here capture solar radiance data in 5 wavelengths which are used to extract information on aerosol optical thickness and water vapour content. These two key parameters of interest are used as inputs for the atmospheric correction of remotely sensed image data.

This dataset contains soil microbial and genomic analysis files of 9 soil samples from each of three plots at Fletcherview, Northern Queensland (NQ) processed by the <a href='https://agrf.org/'>Australian Genome Research Facility Ltd (AGRF) </a>. The files are available as compressed FastQ formatted sequence files.<br> For the nine Far North Queensland (FNQ) new plots (3 plots in Fletcherview and six plots at Wambiana), soil sampling additional to that done as component of plot installation by TERN have been undertaken. This is aligned with potential future exploratory work on soil eDNA proposed for WA. The protocol is a modified version of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13742-016-0126-5">BASE sampling protocol</a>, combined with soil sampling as per <a href="https://www.tern.org.au/wp-content/uploads/TERN-Rangelands-Survey-Protocols-Manual_web.pdf">White et al. (2012)</a>. <br> DNA extracted from the soil samples and Metagenomics 10Gbp (giga base pairs) bundle as per AGRF protocol.

This dataset is a collection of drone RGB and multispectral imagery from plots across Australia (AusPlots, SuperSites, Cal/Val sites to be established in the future). Standardised data collection and data processing protocols are used to collect drone imagery and to generate orthomosaics. The protocols developed in 2022 are based on the DJI Matrice 300 (M300) RTK drone platform. DJI Zenmuse P1 and MicaSense RedEdge-MX/Dual sensors are used with M300 to capture RGB and multispectral imagery simultaneously. The data is georeferenced using the DJI D-RTK2 base station and onboard GNSS RTK. In the processing workflow, the multispectral image positions (captured with navigation-grade accuracy) are interpolated using image timestamp and RGB image coordinates. Dense point clouds and the fine-resolution RGB smoothed surface were used to generate co-registered RGB (1 cm/pixel) and multispectral (5 cm/pixel) orthomosaics. Mission-specific metadata for each plot is provided in the imagery/metadata folder. The Drone Data Collection and RGB and Multispectral Imagery Processing protocols can be found at <em> https://www.tern.org.au/field-survey-apps-and-protocols/ </em>.

This dataset contains UAV RGB imagery collected as part of a field trial to test the Uncrewed Aerial System to be used for the TERN Drone project. The UAS platform is DJI Matrice 300 RTK with 2 sensors: Zenmuse P1 (35 mm) RGB mapping camera and Micasense RedEdge-MX (5-band multispectral sensor). P1 imagery were georeferenced using the onboard GNSS in M300 and the D-RTK 2 Mobile Station. Camera positions were post-processed using <a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/positioning-navigation/geodesy/auspos">AUSPOS</a>. The flight took place between 14:00 and 14:08 at a height of 80m with a flying speed set to 5 m/s. Forward and side overlaps of photographs were set to 80%. <br><br> Agisoft Metashape was used to generate this RGB orthomosaic (resolution 1 cm). This cloud optimised GeoTIFF was created using rio command line interface. The coordinate reference system of the orthomosaic is EPSG 7855 - GDA2020 MGA Zone 55.

This dataset contains UAV RGB imagery collected as part of a field trial to test the Uncrewed Aerial System to be used for the TERN Drone project. The UAS platform is DJI Matrice 300 RTK with 2 sensors: Zenmuse P1 (35 mm) RGB mapping camera and Micasense RedEdge-MX Dual (10-band multispectral sensor). P1 imagery were georeferenced using the onboard GNSS in M300 and the D-RTK 2 Mobile Station. Camera positions were post-processed using <a href="https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/positioning-navigation/geodesy/auspos">AUSPOS</a>. Flight conducted between 10:26 am and 10:47 am AEDT at flying height 80 m, forward and side overlap set to 80%. <br><br> RGB orthomosaic (resolution: 1 cm. CRS: EPSG 7855 - GDA2020 MGA Zone 55) generated using Agisoft Metashape Professional, and a cloud optimised GeoTIFF was created using rio command line interface.