OzFlux 2016 at Calperum July 2016

This year, OzFlux 2016 was held at the Calperum Station managed by Australian Landscape Trust. At the Calperum flux tower, the site is steadily recovering since the bushfire in January 2014.

The site of the Calperum flux tower on the Calperum Station in the Mallee north of Renmark. The mallee are growing new shoots from the base.

In the foreground is a mallee seedling now struggling to grow because of the water limited environment. Since the fire, there are swards of Stipa grass.

Peter Cale smiling and Professor Wayne Meyer, University of Adelaide, showing Mallee flowers to OzFlux workers from the other Australian flux towers funded by TERN.

The group were interested to see Triodia at an unburnt Mallee site.

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Now we have our Net Primary Productivity; May 2015

Thanks to a team of NAB employees and facilitated by EarthWatch and Peter Cale from ALT Calperum. The week long programme compared burnt and unburnt sites. We are interested in the recovery after fire and employees enjoyed helping to survey for seedlings, birds, fauna and insects. They watched drones and helped with collection of mallee tree biomass for us to determine the leaf area index and the net primary productivity. A very productive time, thank you!Painted dragon Ctenophorus pictus

Mallee ningaui Ningaui yvonneae

Images from the top of our 20 metre flux tower and Professor  Wayne Meyer checking on the tower instruments, imagery over the landscape using drones flown by Associate Professor Lian Pin Koh; both from Adelaide University.

Digital cover photography for leaf area index. Georgia Koerber is comparing processing programs and determining the relationship of canopy cover to ecosystem respiration and basal soil respiration to be presented at Rhizosphere4 in Maastricht June 2015 (http://www.rhizo4.org/)

Bushfire recovery, May 2014

It has been a busy three months restoring the tower instruments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we are tracking the regrowth.

Mallee seedling in the foreground.

Out of the Ashes

Since the fire on the 17th of January, Wayne Meyer and Georgia Koerber have been repairing the burnt instruments. Grant Whiteman and Peter Cale at Calperum station have been a great help; http://www.austlandscapetrust.org.au/projects/riverland/calperum-taylorville.aspx

We have replaced wind sentrie’s at 2 and 10 metres and a humidity metre also at 10 metres. We replaced the solar panel and were able to get the tower going again!

We have a shift in focus of or research now; the shift in carbon and water from live vegetation and it’s regeneration after bushfire.

Calperum Flux Tower

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