Flux Tower Measurements from a Loxton Almond Orchard

Encompassing flux tower measurements of energy and mass exchange between the surface and atmosphere using eddy covariance techniques. Data were processed with PyFluxPro (v3.4.15) to produce a final, gap-filled product including Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE), Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), and Ecosystem Respiration (ER). The measurements were collected from an almond orchard site in Loxton, Australia, which was operational from August 2008 to June 2009.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) and orchard management practices described in the metadata, such as fertigation schedules.
• Partition Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) into its Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) and Ecosystem Respiration (ER) components to study carbon dynamics in an agricultural ecosystem.
• Use gap-filled flux data to model energy exchange between the orchard surface and the atmospheric boundary-layer over the study period.
• Correlate flux measurements with site-specific details like tree height (5.5 m), planting spacing (7m x 5m), and orchard block size (10 ha).

Strengths

• Data processed using the standardized PyFluxPro (v3.4.15) software, following the methodology described by Isaac et al. (2017).
• Provides a final, gap-filled data product, which is essential for continuous time-series analysis.
• Includes detailed site metadata such as precise coordinates (34.47035 °S, 140.65512 °E), operational period (Aug 2008 - Jun 2009), and specific agricultural management details.

Limitations

• The temporal coverage is limited to a single growing season (less than one year), restricting analysis of long-term trends or inter-annual variability.
• The dataset's scope is geographically specific to a single almond orchard block, limiting generalizability to other ecosystems or regions.
• Available file formats (HTML, PNG) suggest the primary data may be presented in reports or figures rather than a structured, machine-readable tabular format.

Provenance

Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery

Collection Method

Flux tower measurements using eddy covariance techniques, processed with PyFluxPro software.

Time Range

August 2008 to June 2009

Freshness

The dataset record was last updated on 2026-03-20, though the underlying data collection ended in 2009.

Geography

Loxton, Australia (34.47035 °S, 140.65512 °E), within a 10-hectare almond orchard block.