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Site Description

The flux tower was located on ~ 100 ha of private farming land in the Coleambally Irrigation Area (CIA), which is a gravity-fed irrigation system located in the temperate semi-arid regions of the Riverina district in southern New South Wales, Australia. The CIA consists of ~ 400 000 ha, 79 000 ha of which is intensively irrigated cropland. In summer (November–April), crop production primarily consists of rice, maize, soybean and cotton; the main winter crops (May–October) include wheat, barley, canola and pasture.

The flux tower was placed over rice on 03 November 2010 (-34.9252, 145.8212, 120 m) which was planted 12 November 2010 and remained in place until 16 May 2011.

Soils are this site are classified as transitional red-brown earth and have a bulk density of 1675 kg/m³ at depths of 0 – 0.3 m. Observed maximum daily temperatures over the growing season ranged from 29.9 °C on 01 January 2010 and 9.6 °C on 11 April 2011. Observed rainfall over the 2010/11 summer growing season was ~ 470 mm. Surface irrigation water was applied over the period 06 – 12 November 2010 to flood the system. Water levels were maintained at 0.05 m until panicle initiation and 0.3 m thereafter. The water was drained in the week beginning 28 March and the total irrigation water applied was 7.6 ML/ha. Prior to planting, phosphorous and nitrogen fertiliser was added at a rate of 14 kg/ha and 150 kg/ha, respectively. The crop was aerially sown at a rate of 188 kg/ha on 12 November and harvested in the week beginning 20 April 2011 with a yield of 10.1 t/ha (dry weight) and a harvest index of 0.50.