Group:
Location
22° 27' 54" S, 133° 20' 34.8" E
See map: Google Maps
Brief Site Description:
Alica Mulga is a arid-zone catchment with mulga woodland, hummock grassland savanna and riparian river redgum.
Detailed Site Description:
The Alice Mulga SuperSite is located on Pine Hill Cattle Station approximately 200 km north of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. It lies in the expansive arid and semi-arid portion of mainland Australia that receives less than 500 mm of annual rainfall. The site includes Mulga woodland, hummock grassland, and river red gum forest. The SuperSite Core 1 ha is located in a dense Mulga woodland (cover 70–80%). The SuperSite has a second OzFlux tower at Ti Tree East where AusPlots are also located in a mosaic of hummock grassland/Corymbia savanna with patches of Mulga/tussock grass. A third study location in the SuperSite is a river red gum forest along the Woodforde river where sapflux sensors are installed.
Research questions:
- What are the daily, seasonal and inter-annual patterns of energy, carbon and water fluxes of a central Australian arid-zone Mulga dominated biome?
- What are the responses and biological controls of energy, carbon and water fluxes to pulses of rain?
- How do the responses, to pulses of rain, differ in the soil, understorey and overstorey components of this ecosystem?
- What is the impact of variation in soil moisture content (at multiple depths) and atmospheric vapour pressure deficit on the ecophysiology of the understorey and overstorey?
- What is the resilience of woody vegetation, in relation to high interannual weather variation and unpredictable events (flood, drought)?
Field Site Type:
International affiliate
Registration:
Unregistered
Network(s):
TERN
Study Start Date:
2016
Mean Annual Precipitation:
308 millimeters / year
Average Annual Temperature:
23°C
Average Summer Temperature:
31°C
Average Winter Temperature:
14°C
Land Cover:
Herbaceous Wetlands
Soil Order:
Unknown
Hydrology: Surface water stream order:
Unknown
Hydrology: Surface water - Stream Flow Performance:
Unknown
Hydrology: Groundwater:
Unknown
Climate:
Unknown
Sub-Climate:
Unknown
Group visibility:
Public - accessible to all site users