Loxton Flux Data Collection

All flux raw data is subject to the quality control process OzFlux QA/QC to generate data from L1 to L6. Levels 3 to 6 are available for re-use. Datasets contain Quality Controls flags which will indicate when data quality is poor and has been filled from alternative sources. For more details, refer to Isaac et al (2017) in the Publications section, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2903-2017 . | Credit We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. The research was supported with funds from the National Action Plan for Salinity via the Centre for Natural Resource Management, and the River Murray Levy. | Purpose The purpose of the Loxton flux station is to measure the water use of about 4 ha of mature high-yielding almond trees. The study area was surrounded by almonds undergoing a similar irrigation regime. Ancillary measures of orchard canopy size; water, nutrient and salinity status, and climate were also collected. Two of the weaknesses in this approach, uncertainty about the origin of fluxes and lack of energy balance closure, were addressed by calculating monthly flux footprints and deriving ET from fluxes which have been adjusted to close the energy balance. | Progress Code: completed | Maintenance and Update Frequency: biannually | This dataset consists of measurements of the exchange of energy and mass between the surface and the atmospheric boundary-layer from an Almond Orchard in South Australia's Riverland, using eddy covariance techniques. The Loxton site was established in August 2008 and decommissioned in June 2009. The orchard was divided into 10 ha blocks (200 m by 500 m with the long axis aligned north–south) and the flux tower was situated at 34.47035°S and 140.65512°E near the middle of the northern half of a block of trees. The topography of the site was slightly undulating and the area around the tower had a slope of less than 1.5°. The orchard was planted in 2000 with an inter-row spacing of 7 m and a within row spacing of 5 m. Tree height in August 2008 was 5.5 m. The study block consists of producers, Nonpareil, planted every other row, and pollinators planted as alternating rows of Carmel, Carmel and Peerless, and Carmel and Price. All varieties were planted on Nemaguard rootstock. All but 31 ha of the surrounding orchard was plan