Ground Cover Reference Sites Database of Northern Territory

The Ground Cover Reference Sites Database of Northern Territory has been collected by Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport, Northern Territory 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: Abutilon hannii, Acacia aneura, Acacia bidentata f. australis, Acacia coreceae, Acacia estrophiolata, Acacia farnesiana, Acacia georginae, Acacia gonocarpa, Acacia hammondii, Acacia hemignosta, Acacia holosericea, Acacia kempeana, Acacia lamprocarpa, Acacia ligulata, Acacia monticola, Acacia murrayana, Acacia orthocarpa, Acacia phlebocarpa, Acacia platycarpa, Acacia sp., Acacia sutherlandii, Acacia tenuissima, Acacia tetragonophylla, Acacia victoriae, Acacia wickhamii, Allocasuarina decaisneana, Aristida contorta, Aristida holathera, Aristida hygrometrica, Aristida inaequiglumis, Aristida ingrata, Aristida latifolia, Aristida sp., Astrebla elymoides, Astrebla pectinata, Astrebla squarrosa, Atalaya hemiglauca, Atriplex spongiosa, Bauhinia cunninghamii, Brachiaria humidicola, Brachyachne convergens, Brachychiton paradoxus, Calotropis procera, Caltropis procera, Carissa lanceolata, Cenchrus ciliaris, Centrosema pascuorum, Chenopodiaceae sp., Chloris gayana, Chrysopogon fallax, Codonocarpus sp., Corchorus sidoides, Corymbia apperenjii, Corymbia bella, Corymbia confertiflora, Corymbia dichromophloia, Corymbia ferruginea, Corymbia foelscheana, Corymbia grandifolia, Corymbia opaca, Corymbia pachycarpa, Corymbia polycarpa, Corymbia terminalis, Corymbia umbonata, Crotalaria sp., Cynodon dactylon, Cyperus sp., Dichanthium fecundum, Dichanthium sericeum, Dichanthium sp., Digitaria brownii, Distichostemon hispidulus, Disturbance, Dodonaea physocarpa, Enneapogon avenaceus, Enneapogon cylindricus, Enneapogon polyphyllus, Enteropogon ramosus, Eragrostis eriopoda, Eragrostis sp., Eragrostis xerophila, Eramophila macdonellensis, Eremophila duttonii, Eremophila latrobei, Eremophila longifolia, Eremophila macondelensiss, Eremophila neglecta, Eremophila sp., Eremophila sturtii, Eriachne avenacea, Eriachne burkittii, Eriachne ciliata, Eriachne obtusa, Erosion, Erythrina vespertilio, Erythrophleum chlorostachys, Erythroxylum ellipticum, Eucalyptus brevifolia, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, Eucalyptus chlorophylla, Eucalyptus coolabah subsp. arida, Eucalyptus gamophylla, Eucalyptus leucophloia, Eucalyptus microtheca, Eucalyptus miniata, Eucalyptus pruinosa, Eucalyptus tectifica, Eucalyptus tetrodonta, Eulalia aurea, Eulalia mackinlayi, Fimbristylis dichotoma, Flemingia pauciflora, Flora, Frankenia sessifolia, Gardenia ewartii subsp. ewartii, Geology, Grevillea dryandri, Grevillea refracta, Grevillea stenobotrya, Grevillea striata, Grevillea wickhamii, Grewia retusifolia, Gyrocarpus americanus, Hakea arborescens, Hakea divaricata, Hakea lorea, Heliotropium ventricosum, Heteropogon contortus, Hyptis suaveolens, Iseilema fragile, Iseilema macratherum, Iseilema membranaceum, Jacksonia dilatata, Jacquemontia browniana, Land Cover, Land Use, Landscape, Lithology, Livistona humilis, Maireana astrotricha, Maireana georgei, Maireana sp., Maytenus cunninghamii, Melaleuca citrolens, Melaleuca nervosa, Melaleuca viridiflora, Mnesithea formosa, Panicum decompositum, Pennisetum ciliare, Petalostigma pubescens, Petalostigma quadriloculare, Polymeria longifolia, Ptilotus sessilifolius, Santalum lanceolatum, Schizachyrium fragile, Sclerolaena anisacanthoides, Sclerolaena bicornis, Sclerolaena cuneata, Sclerolaena diacantha, Sclerolaena sp., Sclerostegia sp., Sehima nervosum, Senna artemisioides, Senna artemisioides subsp. artemisioides, Senna artemisioides subsp. filifolia, Senna artemisioides subsp. oligophylla, Sesbania cannabina, Sida fibulifera, Soil, Sorghum intrans, Sorghum plumosum, Species Presence/Abundance, Sporobolus actinocladus, Sporobolus australasicus, Stylosanthes hamata, Syzygium eucalyptoides, Tecticornia sp., Tecticornia verrucosa, Templetonia hookeri, Terminalia arostrata, Terminalia canescens, Terminalia latipes, Terminalia platyptera, Terminalia volucris, Themeda avenacea, Themeda triandra, Triodia basedowii, Triodia bitextura, Triodia microstachya, Triodia pungens, Tripogon loliiformis, Uraria lagapoides, Vachellia ditricha, Vegetation Cover, Vegetation Structure, Ventilago viminalis, Wedelia sp., Zygochloa paradoxa
Organization: Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery