Ground Cover Reference Sites Database of Western Australia

The Ground Cover Reference Sites Database of Western Australia has been collected by Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia as part of the Ground Cover Monitoring for Australia project. The data is being used to calibrate, validate and improve vegetation fractional cover products derived from remote sensing, in particular the satellite sensors MODIS and Landsat. The data is being used to improve the national fractional vegetation cover product of Guerschman et al. (2009) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). This algorithm enables national, monthly identification of ground cover separating the photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic components by applying a linear unmixing methodology for spectral reflectance every 8 days as 16-day composites. For confidence in its ground cover estimates, the results were verified in the field at selected sites across Australia to allow more extensive calibration, validation and verification of accuracy of the remote sensing method. The Ground Cover Reference Sites Database represents the results of the field validation of remotely determined cover measurements by observing cover along point intersects with a total of 300 points (or 200 points with crops). It also has additional observations and measures such as landscape features, fire evidence, erosion evidence, biotic disturbance evidence, biomass estimates, basal area measurements, soil features and dominant vegetation species, as well as site photographs. The Ground Cover Reference Sites Database focuses on sites in extensive grazing systems of the rangelands and, to a lesser extent, in the mixed farming or intensive land use zone. Field validation aims at obtaining a wide spatial coverage of sites, with limited site revisits for temporal coverage.

Tags: Acacia acuminata, Acacia aneura, Acacia burkittii, Acacia craspedocarpa, Acacia curara, Acacia cyperophylla, Acacia farnesiana, Acacia grasbyi, Acacia inaequilatera, Acacia kempeana, Acacia linophylla, Acacia microneura, Acacia papyrocarpa, Acacia pruinocarpa, Acacia sclerosperma, Acacia sp., Acacia stellaticeps, Acacia suberea, Acacia tetragonophylla, Acacia tumida, Acacia victoriae, Acacia xiphophylla, Alectryon oleifolius, Alyxia buxifolia, Arctotheca calendula, Aristida contorta, Aristida inaequiglumis, Aristida latiflora, Aristida latifolia, Arsitida contorta, Asphodelus fistulosus, Astrebla pectinata, Atalaya hemiglauca, Atriplex codonocarpa, Atriplex nummularia, Atriplex semilunaris, Atriplex sp., Atriplex vesicaria, Austrodanthonia Caesipitoa, Austrostipa scabra, Bauhinia sp., Brachyachne convergens, Brachycome sp., Calandrinia sp., Calotropis procera, Calythrix sp., Calytrix sp., Carissa lanceolata, Carissa spinarum, Carrichtera annua, Casuarina pauper, Cenchrus ciliaris, Cenchrus sp., Cephalipterum sp., Chenopodioideae sp., Chrysopogon fallax, Corymbia dampieri, Corymbia greeniana, Corymbia opaca, Corymbia sp., Cratystylis conocephala, Cratystylis subspinescens, Cyanostegia cyanocalyx, Cymbopogon sp., Cynanchum sp., Dichanthium fecundum, Disturbance, Dodonaea lobulata, Enneapogon caerulescens, Enneapogon polyphyllus, Enneapogon sp., Enteropogon acicularis, Eragrostis dielsii, Eragrostis eriopoda, Eragrostis setifolia, Eragrostis sp., Eragrostis xerophila, Eremophila alternifolia, Eremophila crenulata, Eremophila delisseri, Eremophila forrestii, Eremophila fraseri, Eremophila glabra, Eremophila linearis, Eremophila longifolia, Eremophila scoparia, Eremophila sp., Eremophila sp. aff. wilcox x cuneifolia, Eriachne benthamii, Eriachne flaccida, Eriachne glauca, Eriachne helmsii, Eriachne obtusa, Eriachne sp., Erodium sp., Erosion, Eucalyptus argillacea, Eucalyptus brevifolia, Eucalyptus concinna, Eucalyptus leucophloia, Eucalyptus salmonophloia, Eucalyptus sp., Eucalyptus tectifica, Eucalyptus transcontinentalis, Exocarpus aphyllus, Fimbristylis sp., Flora, Forbs sp., Frankenia sp., Geology, Gossypium australe, Grevillea lorea, Grevillea sp., Grevillea suberea, Hakea arida, Hakea francisiana, Hakea lorea, Hakea preissii, Hakea sp., Halosarcia sp., Halosarcia spp., Heteropogon contortus, Hordeum leporinum, Hypochaeris radicata, Indigofera sp., Ipomaea sp., Land Cover, Land Use, Landscape, Lawrencia squamata, Lithology, Lolium rigidum, Lupinus angustifolius, Lupinus sp., Lycium australe, Lycium sp., Maireana aff. tomentosa, Maireana brevifolia, Maireana carnosa, Maireana erioclada, Maireana georgei, Maireana glomerifolia, Maireana pyramidata, Maireana sedifolia, Maireana sp., Maireana tomentosa, Maireana trichoptera, Maireana triptera, Malvastrum americanum, Melaleuca hamata, Melaleuca uncinata, Olearia muelleri, Parkinsonia aculeata, Pennisetum clandestinum, Pittosporum angustifolium, Podolepis sp., Portulaca sp., Ptilotus aervoides, Ptilotus obovatus, Ptilotus obtusifolia, Ptilotus schwartzii, Ptilotus sp., Rhagodia eremaea, Rhagodia sp., Romulea rosea, Rumex sp., Scaevola sp., Scaevola spinescens, Sclerolaena bicornis, Sclerolaena cuneata, Sclerolaena densiflora, Sclerolaena diacantha, Sclerolaena eriacantha, Sclerolaena obliquicuspis, Sclerolaena patenticuspis, Sclerolaena sp., Sehima nervosum, Senna artemisioides, Senna artemisioides subsp. sturtii, Senna phyllodinea, Senna sp., Sida calyxhymenia, Soil, Solanum lasiophyllum, Solanum sp., Sorghum bicolor, Sorghum plumosum, Species Presence/Abundance, Sporobolus sp., Swainsonia sp., Tecticornia doleiformis, Themeda evinca, Trianthema triquetra, Trifolium subterraneum, Triodia basedowii, Triodia intermedia, Triodia pungens, Triodia scariosa, Triodia sp., Triodia wiseana, Tripogon loliiformis, Triticum sp., Vegetation Cover, Vegetation Structure, Whitechloa sp., Xerochloa laniflora, Zygophyllum sp.
Organization: Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery