Ground Cover Reference Sites Database of South Australia

The Ground Cover Reference Sites Database of South Australia has been collected by Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, South 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: Abutilon otocarpum, Acacia aneura, Acacia aneura var. aneura, Acacia aneura var. tenuis, Acacia ligulata, Acacia murrayana, Acacia papyrocarpa, Acacia tetragonophylla, Acacia victoriae, Alectryon oleifolius, Aristida contorta, Aristida holathera, Aristida sp., Asphodelus fistulosus, Astrebla pectinata, Astrebla sp., Atalaya hemiglauca, Atriplex acutiloba, Atriplex angulata, Atriplex holocarpa, Atriplex lindleyi subsp. lindleyi, Atriplex nummularia, Atriplex nummularia subsp. omissa, Atriplex stipitata, Atriplex vesicaria, Atriplex vesicaria subsp. (NC), Austrodanthonia caespitosa, Austrodanthonia sp., Austrostipa nitida, Austrostipa sp., Calotis hispidula, Calytrix sp., Carrichtera annua, Casuarina pauper, Chenopodiaceae sp., Chenopodioideae sp., Chenopodium auricomum, Crotalaria eremaea, Crotalaria eremaea subsp. eremaea, Cullen australasicum, Dactyloctenium radulans, Dissocarpus paradoxus, Disturbance, Dodonaea viscosa, Dodonaea viscosa subsp. angustissima, Duma florulenta, Eclipta platyglossa, Enneapogon avenaceus, Enneapogon cylindricus, Enneapogon polyphyllus, Enneapogon sp., Epaltes cunninghamii, Eragrostis confertiflora, Eragrostis dielsii var. dielsii, Eragrostis falcata, Eragrostis setifolia, Eragrostis sp., Eragrostis tenellula, Eremophila duttonii, Eremophila longifolia, Eremophila sp., Eriachne aristidea, Eriochiton sclerolaenoides, Erosion, Eucalyptus coolabah, Flora, Geology, Goodenia cycloptera, Goodenia lunata, Gramineae sp., Gunniopsis quadrifida, Hearbaceous species, Indigofera colutea, Indigofera linnaei, Iseilema membranaceum, Land Cover, Land Use, Landscape, Lechenaultia divaricata, Lithology, Maireana aphylla, Maireana astrotricha, Maireana ciliata, Maireana coronata, Maireana pyramidata, Maireana sedifolia, Maireana sp., Maireana spongiocarpa, Maireana tomentosa subsp. urceolata, Maireana triptera, Maireana turbinata, Mariana aphylla, Marsilea drummondii, Marsilea sp., Myoporum platycarpum, Nitraria billardieri, Portulaca sp., Pterocaulon sphacelatum, Ptilotus obovatus, Ptilotus obovatus var. obovatus, Ptilotus sp., Rhagodia spinescens, Rhodanthe floribunda, Salsola tragus, Samphire sp., Sarcozona praecox, Sclerolaena bicornis, Sclerolaena brachyptera, Sclerolaena diacantha, Sclerolaena divaricata, Sclerolaena eriacantha, Sclerolaena glabra, Sclerolaena holtiana, Sclerolaena intricata, Sclerolaena limbata, Sclerolaena obliquicuspis, Sclerolaena parrallecuspis, Sclerolaena patenticuspis, Sclerolaena sp., Sedge sp., Senna artemisioides subsp. coriacea, Senna artemisioides subsp. petiolaris, Senna pleurocarpa, Senna sp., Sida ammophila, Sida fibulifera, Sida sp., Soil, Solanum depauperata, Solanum sp., Species Presence/Abundance, Sporobolus actinocladus, Sporobolus caroli, Tecticornia disarticulata, Tecticornia tenuis, Teucrium racemosum, Tribulus sp., Triodia sp., Triraphis mollis, Triticum sp., Uranthoecium truncatum, Vegetation Cover, Vegetation Structure, Zygochloa paradoxa, Zygophyllum apiculatum
Organization: Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery