Category: The University of Western Australia

Gingin (57)

Access Site 57 data on A2O data portal.

Site name: Gingin
Site number: 57
Point numbers: 225 (Gingin Dry A), 226 (Gingin Dry B), 227 (Gingin Wet B), 228 (Gingin Wet A)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: Edith Cowan University, The University of Western Australia, CSIRO, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Site location: South Western Australia
Latitude: -31.376
Longitude: 115.714
Site description: Gingin Banksia Woodland TERN SuperSite is located on the Swan Coastal Plain, approximately 10 km southwest of Gingin, near Perth, Western Australia, sited on land traditionally owned by the Yued group of the Noongar people. The site has an elevation of 51 m and 2 km from the University of Western Australia International Gravity Wave Observatory.

The Gingin Banksia Woodland SuperSite is located in a natural woodland of high species diversity (overstorey dominated by Banksia spp.) that overlays the Gnangara groundwater mound, Perth’s most important groundwater resource. The mean annual precipitation is 641mm for this coastal heath woodland. The overstorey is dominated by Banksia spp. mainly B. menziesii, B. attenuata, and B. grandis with a height of around 7 m and leaf area index of about 0.8. There are occasional stands of eucalypts and acacia that reach to 10 m and have a denser foliage cover.

There are many former wetlands dotted around the woodland, most of which were inundated all winter and some had permanent water 30 years ago. The water table has now fallen below the base of these systems and they are disconnected and are no longer permanently wet. The fine sediments, sometimes diatomaceous, hold water and they have perched water tables each winter. There is a natural progression of species accompanying this process as they gradually become more dominated by more xeric species.

The soils are mainly Podosol sands, with low moisture holding capacity. Field capacity typically about 8 to 10%, and in summer these generally hold less than 2% moisture. The water table is at about 8.5 m below the surface, and a WA Dept of water long-term monitoring piezometer is near the base of the OzFlux tower.

Boyagin Nature Reserve (55)

Access Site 55 data on A2O data portal.

Site name: Boyagin Nature Reserve
Site number: 55
Point numbers: 217 (Boyagin Dry A), 218 (Boyagin Dry B), 219 (Boyagin Wet A), 220 (Boyagin Wet B)
Ecoregion: Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrubs
Participant and site owner: University of Western Australia, Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Site location: South Western Australia
Latitude: -32.471
Longitude: 116.863
Site description: The Boyagin Wandoo Woodland SuperSite was established in the Boyagin Nature Reserve in September 2017 by the University of Western Australia. The Boyagin Nature Reserve lies approximately 12 km west of Pingelly, Western Australia. The SuperSite monitoring activities complement the Avon River Catchment Critical Zone Observatory at the UWA Future Farm in Pingelly that focuses on managed landscapes (rotational dryland wheat cropping and grazing pastures for sheep). The climate is Semi-arid (Dry) Warm Mediterranean.

The site provides nationally consistent observations of vegetation dynamics, faunal biodiversity, micrometeorology (climate, radiation, fluxes of carbon and water), hydrology and biogeochemistry to examine the impacts of disturbance, climate on carbon stocks and Green House Gas emissions, and impacts on habitat quality via ongoing monitoring of vegetation structure and fauna. A wide range of ground based observations of vegetation structure and floristics is planned and all will link to remote sensing of fire and vegetation change over time. Measurements of carbon sequestration through time will be achieved via the TERN OzFlux instrumentation capable of directly measuring CO2, water use and surface energy properties (energy balance, reflectance).

Boyagin SuperSite is located in the Avon Wheatbelt (AW2-Re-juvenated Drainage subregion) and has a high density of rare and geographically restricted flora and supports populations of several marsupials subject to fox predation (Numbat, Quenda, Woylie, Tammar, Red-tailed Phascogale, Brushtail Possum) that have disappeared from most of the Australian or Western Australian mainland.