Digital Cover Photography from Alice Mulga SuperSite 2011-2018

Upward-looking vegetation images collected twice per year from 2011 to 2018 at the Alice Mulga SuperSite in Australia's Northern Territory. The Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) gathered these images to monitor low open woodland Mulga, hummock grassland, and river red gum forest. Images are provided in PNG format and can be used to estimate key vegetation metrics.

Use Cases

• Estimate Leaf Area Index (LAI) based on upward-looking canopy images.
• Calculate Crown Cover or Foliage Projective Cover (FPC) from repeated photographic surveys.
• Monitor vegetation change over time based on the multi-year collection from 2011 to 2018.
• Compare canopy structure across different ecosystem types (Mulga woodland, grassland, forest) mentioned in the site description.

Strengths

• Images collected over an 8-year period (2011-2018), providing a multi-temporal record.
• Covers multiple distinct vegetation types: Mulga woodland, non-Acacia hummock grassland, and river red gum forest.
• Core plot is located in dense Mulga woodland with 70–80% cover, offering a detailed reference site.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Collection frequency was 'ideally twice per year' but depended on travel availability, indicating potential gaps in the time series.

Provenance

Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery

Collection Method

Digital Cover Photography (DCP) using upward-looking images.

Time Range

2011 - 2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-13 10:24:01.856206; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Alice Mulga SuperSite at Pine Hill Cattle Station, Northern Territory, Australia.