Introduction | Contacts | Purpose | Site Description | Measurements | DEM | Pictures

Purpose

The purpose of the Virginia Park flux station was:

• to measure exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapour and energy between the savannah and the atmosphere using micrometeorological techniques

• to study ecophysiological processes of water movement and rates of carbon accumulation of an ecosystem which occurs across much of northern Australia

• to utilize the ecophysiological and micrometeorological measurements to test models of plant and canopy function through the wet and dry seasons, and the response of trees and grassland to drought

• to utilize the measurements to test the CSIRO Biosphere Model (CBM) (Leuning et al. 1998; Wang et al. 1998). This model calculates rates of radiation absorption by plant canopies, photosynthesis, respiration, energy partitioning and changes in soil water storage. CBM forms the land-atmosphere exchange scheme in the CSIRO atmospheric transport model DARLAM which is used to calculate net carbon and water exchanges between the land biosphere and atmosphere at scales ranging from small catchments to the Australian continent (McGregor et al., 1993)

• to utilize DARLAM to extrapolate flux measurements at the flux station site to estimate net exchanges of carbon and water at regional scale (600km).

This work was an integral part of the CSIRO Biosphere Working Group's (BWG) study of the linked carbon and water cycles for the Australian continent.