Wallaby Creek OzFlux tower site

Data from Wallaby Creek flux tower, Victoria.

The Wallaby Creek flux station is located in Kinglake National Park, Victoria, South Eastern Australia: 37? 25? 34.4"S, 145? 11? 14.1"E. The area is assigned the IUCN Category II (National Parks) of the United Nations? list of National Parks and protected areas, which means that park is primarily managed for ecosystem conservation.

The site is approximately 45km north east of Melbourne, lies at an elevation of approximately 720 metres, and is located on the southern edge of the Hume Plateau. The catchment area is dominated by Eucalyptus Regnans or Mountain Ash, the world?s tallest flowering plant (angiosperm). Trees can reach heights of more than 90 metres growing in areas with high rainfall and fertile soil. These trees are well distributed throughout Victoria?s Central Highlands including the Otway Ranges and Strzlecki Ranges; they are also found in Tasmania. The site contains a chronosequence of (20, 80 and 300) stand ages that were established during fires occurring over the last 300 years.

The tower itself is located within an old growth stand with individual trees as old as 300 years. Mountain ash forests are confined to the cool mountain regions with elevations ranging from 460 - 1100m and average rainfalls of 1100-2000mm. The catchment area contains a portion of the Mt Disappointment range, the Divide and the headwaters of Wallaby Creek and Silver Creek, and much of the slopes are characterised as flat to moderate.

The major soil type within the forest is krasnozemic soils, which are friable red/brown, with high amounts of organic matter in the upper 20 ? 30cm. However, the composition of krasnozemic soils is not homogenous, but rather a variation with altitude can be observed; lower altitudes inhabit grey-yellow podsolised soils compared to higher altitudes of the Kinglake and Hume plateau where the soil composition is krasnozemic loams. The clay content of these soils increases with depth until at least 200 cm deep, where after a transition soils contain rock fragments.

Bushfires swept through the region in January 2009 destroying the tower. Data from the site has been recorded from May 2010 onwards. As the tower is relatively new, the post fire instrumentation is currently not as diverse when compared to the pre fire instrumentation.

The climate of the study area is classified as a cool, temperate zone, with the highest temperatures occurring during the summer months of December ? February (13.8 ? 22.5?C), whilst the coolest temperatures are experienced in May and August (4.7 ? 9.2?C). Average annual precipitation is 1209mm, with a maximum rainfall occurring in June (Ashton, 2000). The study site experiences foggy conditions after sunset during autumn and winter.

The forest is classed as a tall, wet sclerophyll forest, and the dominant Mountain Ash trees have an average canopy height of 75m. Below the dominant canopy lies a temperate rainforest understorey consisting of Pomaderris aspera and Olearia argophylla species, which are 10-18 metres tall. The lower layers of vegetation are dominated by tree ferns (Cyathea australis and Dicksonia antartica) and extensive tracts of rosette and rhizonic ferns (Polystichum proliferum and Blechnum wattsii) as well as Acacia trees.

本数据集源自澳大利亚维多利亚州沃拉比溪通量塔（flux tower）。
沃拉比溪通量站位于澳大利亚东南部维多利亚州的金莱克国家公园（Kinglake National Park），地理坐标为南纬37°25′34.4″、东经145°11′14.1″。该区域被纳入联合国国家公园与保护区名录中的国际自然保护联盟（IUCN）第二类（国家公园）范畴，即该公园以生态系统保护为首要管理目标。
该站点距墨尔本东北方向约45公里，海拔约720米，地处休谟高原（Hume Plateau）南部边缘。流域以王桉（Eucalyptus regnans，俗称山灰）为优势树种——这是全球最高的显花被子植物（angiosperm）。在高降雨、肥沃土壤的生境中，该树种可长至90米以上。王桉广泛分布于维多利亚州中部高地，包括奥特韦山脉（Otway Ranges）与斯特尔齐莱基山脉（Strzelecki Ranges），在塔斯马尼亚州亦有分布。该站点包含20年、80年及300年三个林龄序列的林分，均形成于过去300年间的山火事件。
通量塔本身坐落于一片老龄林分中，部分单株树木树龄可达300年。山桉林仅局限分布于海拔460~1100米、年降雨量1100~2000毫米的凉爽山区。流域范围涵盖芒特迪斯阿波因特山脉（Mt Disappointment Range）、大分水岭（the Divide）以及沃拉比溪与西尔弗溪的源头区域，多数坡面坡度平缓至中等。
该森林的主要土壤类型为红棕壤（krasnozemic soils），质地疏松呈红棕色，表层20~30厘米土层有机质含量较高。但红棕壤的土壤组成并非均质，随海拔梯度呈现显著变异：金莱克与休谟高原的高海拔区域为红棕壤壤土，而低海拔区域则分布有灰黄色灰化土（grey-yellow podsolised soils）。土壤黏粒含量随深度递增，至少在200厘米深度处仍持续增加；200厘米以下的过渡土层则含有岩石碎屑。
2009年1月的山火席卷该区域，损毁了原有的通量塔。该站点的观测数据自2010年5月起开始记录。由于新塔建设时间较短，目前灾后安装的观测仪器相较于火灾前仍不够丰富。
研究区域的气候属于凉爽温带气候：夏季（12月至次年2月）最高气温区间为13.8~22.5℃，最冷时段出现在5月与8月，气温区间为4.7~9.2℃。年平均降水量为1209毫米，降雨峰值出现在6月（Ashton, 2000）。研究站点在秋冬季节的日落之后多雾天。
该森林属于高大湿润硬叶林（tall, wet sclerophyll forest），优势种王桉的平均冠层高度达75米。优势冠层下方为温带雨林下层植被，包含10~18米高的厚叶牟氏花（Pomaderris aspera）与银叶欧石楠（Olearia argophylla）。植被下层以澳大利亚桫椤（Cyathea australis）和软树蕨（Dicksonia antarctica）为主，同时广泛分布有多叶耳蕨（Polystichum proliferum）、瓦氏乌毛蕨（Blechnum wattsii）等莲座状及根茎类蕨类，以及金合欢属（Acacia）树木。