• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.272-281
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• 2023

Ecosystem observatories are burgeoning globally in an endeavour to detect national and global scale trends in the state of biodiversity and ecosystems in an era of rapid environmental change. In this paper we highlight the additional importance of regional scale outcomes of such infrastructure, through an introduction to the Great Western Woodlands TERN (Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network) SuperSite, and key findings from three gradient plot networks that are part of this infrastructure. The SuperSite was established in 2012 in the 160,000 km² Great Western Woodlands region, in a collaboration involving 12 organisations. This region is globally significant for its largely intact, diverse landscapes, including the world's largest Mediterranean-climate woodlands and highly diverse sandplain shrublands. The dominant woodland eucalypts are fire-sensitive, requiring hundreds of years to regrow after fire. Old-growth woodlands are highly valued by Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, and managing impacts of climate change and the increasing extent of intense fires are key regional management challenges. Like other TERN SuperSites, the Great Western Woodlands TERN SuperSite includes a core eddy-covariance flux tower measuring exchanges of carbon, water and energy between the vegetation and atmosphere, along with additional environmental and biodiversity monitoring around the tower. The broader SuperSite incorporates three gradient plot networks. Two of these represent aridity gradients, in sandplains and woodlands, informing regional climate adaptation and biodiversity management by characterising biodiversity turnover along spatial climate gradients and acting as sentinels for ecosystem change over time. For example, the sandplains transect has demonstrated extremely high spatial turnover rates in plant species, that challenge traditional approaches to biodiversity conservation. The third gradient plot network represents a 400-year fire-age gradient in Eucalyptus salubris woodlands. It has enabled characterisation of post-fire recovery of vegetation, birds and invertebrates over multi-century timeframes, and provided tools that are directly informing management to reduce stand-replacing fires in eucalypt woodlands. By building regional partnerships and applying globally or nationally consistent methodologies to regional scale questions, ecological observatories have the power not only to detect national and global scale trends in biodiversity and ecosystems, but to directly inform environmental decisions that are critical at regional scales.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.929-938
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• 2020

In this study, we estimated missing evapotranspiration (ET) data at a eddy-covariance flux tower in the Cheongmicheon farmland site using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The ANN showed excellent performance in numerical analysis and is expanding in various fields. To evaluate the performance the ANN-based gap-filling, ET was calculated using the existing gap-filling methods of Mean Diagnostic Variation (MDV) and Food and Aggregation Organization Penman-Monteith (FAO-PM). Then ET was evaluated by time series method and statistical analysis (coefficient of determination, index of agreement (IOA), root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE). For the validation of each gap-filling model, we used 30 minutes of data in 2015. Of the 121 missing values, the ANN method showed the best performance by supplementing 70, 53 and 84 missing values, respectively, in the order of MDV, FAO-PM, and ANN methods. Analysis of the coefficient of determination (MDV, FAO-PM, and ANN methods followed by 0.673, 0.784, and 0.841, respectively.) and the IOA (The MDV, FAO-PM, and ANN methods followed by 0.899, 0.890, and 0.951 respectively.) indicated that, all three methods were highly correlated and considered to be fully utilized, and among them, ANN models showed the highest performance and suitability. Based on this study, it could be used more appropriately in the study of gap-filling method of flux tower data using machine learning method.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.227-239
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• 2016

This study is to estimate Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) daily spatial evapotranspiration (ET) comparing with eddy covariance flux tower ET in Seolmacheon mixed forest (SMK) and Cheongmicheon rice paddy (CFK). The SEBAL input data of Albedo, Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from Terra MODIS products and the meteorological data of wind speed, and solar radiation were prepared for 2 years (2012-2013). For the annual average flux tower ET of 302.8 mm in SMK and 482.0 mm in CFK, the SEBAL ETs were 183.3 mm and 371.5 mm respectively. The determination coefficients ($R^2$) of SEBAL ET versus flux tower ET for total periods were 0.54 in SMK and 0.79 in CFK respectively. The main reason of SEBAL ET underestimation for both sites was from the determination of hot pixel and cold pixel of the day and affected to the overestimation of sensible heat flux.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.979-989
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• 2022

In hydrological surveys, observation through representative location is essential due to temporal and spatial limitations and constraints. Regarding the use of hydrological data and the accuracy of the data, there are still insufficient observatories to be used in a specific watershed. In addition, since there is virtually no standard for the location of the current evapotranspiration, this study proposes a method for determining the location of the evapotranspiration. To determining the location of evapotranspiration, a grid is selected in consideration of the operating range of the Flux Tower using the eddy covariance measurement method, which is mainly used to measure evapotranspiration. The grid of representative location was calculated using the factors affecting evapotranspiration and satellite data of evapotranspiration. The grid of representative location was classified as good, fair, and poor. As a result, the number of good grids calculated was 54. It is judged that the classification of the grid has been achieved regarding topography and land use as a characteristic that appeared in the classification of the grid. In particular, in the case of elevation or city area, there was a large deviation, and the calculated good grid was judged to be a group between the two distributions.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.233-245
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• 2014

Nighttime correction of $CO_2$ flux is one of the most important and challenging tasks in eddy covariance measurements over a complex mountainous terrain. In this study, we have scrutinized the quality and the credibility of the $CO_2$ flux datasets which were produced by employing three different methods of nighttime correction, i.e., (1) friction velocity ($u^*$) correction, (2) light response curve (LRC) correction, and (3) advection-based van Gorsel (VG) correction. The whole year datasets used in our analysis were collected at the two KoFlux tower sites (i.e., GDK deciduous forest site at the upper hill and GCK coniferous forest site at the lower hill) located in the valley of Gwangneung National Arboretum in central Korea. The resultant magnitudes and patterns of ecosystem respiration ($R_E$), gross primary productivity (GPP), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of $CO_2$ showed marked differences among the datasets produced with three different correction methods, which were also site-specific. The examination from micrometeorological and ecological perspectives suggests that the major cause of some inconsistency seems to be associated with the advection of $CO_2$ along the sloping terrain and the inappropriate selection of the correction data that might have been already affected by advective flows. The comparison with the results from other studies indicated that the overall characteristics of the corrected $CO_2$ fluxes at GDK and GCK (except those with LRC correction) were well within the ranges reported in the literature for various ecosystems in East Asia in similar latitudes. However, our study also implies that there will be always a room for further improvement in the present datasets. Therefore, caution must be exercised for the data users in order to properly use the updated version of datasets through transparent, open and participatory communication with data producers.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.241-263
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• 2010

KoFlux is a Korean network of micrometeorological tower sites that use eddy covariance methods to monitor the cycles of energy, water, and carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the key terrestrial ecosystems in Korea. KoFlux embraces the mission of AsiaFlux, i.e. to bring Asia's key ecosystems under observation to ensure quality and sustainability of life on earth. The main purposes of KoFlux are to provide (1) an infrastructure to monitor, compile, archive and distribute data for the science community and (2) a forum and short courses for the application and distribution of knowledge and data between scientists including practitioners. The KoFlux community pursues the vision of AsiaFlux, i.e., "thinking community, learning frontiers" by creating information and knowledge of ecosystem science on carbon, water and energy exchanges in key terrestrial ecosystems in Asia, by promoting multidisciplinary cooperations and integration of scientific researches and practices, and by providing the local communities with sustainable ecosystem services. Currently, KoFlux has seven sites in key terrestrial ecosystems (i.e., five sites in Korea and two sites in the Arctic and Antarctic). KoFlux has systemized a standardized data processing based on scrutiny of the data observed from these ecosystems and synthesized the processed data for constructing database for further uses with open access. Through publications, workshops, and training courses on a regular basis, KoFlux has provided an agora for building networks, exchanging information among flux measurement and modelling experts, and educating scientists in flux measurement and data analysis. Despite such persistent initiatives, the collaborative networking is still limited within the KoFlux community. In order to break the walls between different disciplines and boost up partnership and ownership of the network, KoFlux will be housed in the National Center for Agro-Meteorology (NCAM) at Seoul National University in 2011 and provide several core services of NCAM. Such concerted efforts will facilitate the augmentation of the current monitoring network, the education of the next-generation scientists, and the provision of sustainable ecosystem services to our society.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.67-70
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• 2012

현재 국내외에서는 양질의 증발산을 관측하여 활용하기 위해 증발접시 (evaporation pan), 침루계 (lysimeter) 등을 이용하여 실측하거나 Flux Tower에서 Eddy covariance technique, Bowen ratio method 등을 이용하여 경험적으로 산정하고 있다. 이러한 방법으로 산정되는 증발산은 크게 두 분류로 나눌 수 있다. 일반적인 기후 상태에서 유역의 토양이 증발산에 방해를 받지 않을 정도로 충분히 물을 포함하고 있고, 식생이 조밀한 상태에서의 증발산량을 의미하는 잠재 증발산과 실제 산정치인 실제 증발산으로 나눌 수 있다 (Thornthwait, 1939). 본 연구에서는 유역의 잠재 증발산을 산정하여 실제 증발산과 비교를 통해 적용성을 확인하고자 한다. 잠재 증발산을 산정하는 방법은 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 인공위성 데이터를 이용한 원격탐사 기술을 적용하여 산정한다. 원격탐사 기술은 지상 관측의 단점을 보완한 것으로써, 날씨, 인간 활동 등 주변 외부 환경의 영향에 민감하게 반응하여 공간적인 분포 현황을 파악하는 것이 어려운 지상 관측의 한계점을 대체하기 위한 방법이다. 이들 방법으로는 가장 널리 쓰이는 Penman-Monteith (Penman, 1948; Monteith, 1965), 일별 최대, 최저, 평균 기온을 이용한 Hargreaves 방법 (Hargreaves, 1985)과 Priestley-Taylor 방법 (Priestley and Taylor, 1972) 등의 세 가지 방법을 소개하였다. 세 가지 방법으로 산정된 잠재 증발산을 통해 해당 유역의 잠재 증발산의 공간적인 거동을 파악해 볼 수 있다.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.70-80
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• 2003

We report the first direct measurement of $CO_2$ flux over Kwangneung broadleaf deciduous forest, one of the tower flux sites in KoFlux network. Eddy covariance system was installed on a 30 m tower along with other meteorological instruments from June to August in 2002. Although the study site was non-ideal (with valley-like terrain), turbulence characteristics from limited wind directions (i.e., 90$\pm$45$^{\circ}$) was not significantly different from those obtained at simple, homogeneous terrains with an ideal fetch. Despite very low rate of data retrieval, preliminary results from our analysis are encouraging and worthy of further investigation. Ignoring the role of advection terms, the averaged net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of $CO_2$ ranged from -1.2 to 0.7 mg m$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ from June to August in 2002. The effect of weak turbulence on nocturnal NEE was examined in terms of friction velocity (u*) along with the estimation of storage term. The effect of low uf u* NEE was obvious with a threshold value of about 0.2 m s$^{-1}$ . The contribution of storage term to nocturnal NEE was insignificant; suggesting that the $CO_2$ stored within the forest canopy at night was probably removed by the drainage flow along the hilly terrain. This could be also an artifact of uncertainty in calculations of storage term based on a single-level concentration. The hyperbolic light response curves explained ＞80% of variation in the observed NEE, indicating that $CO_2$ exchange at the site was notably light-dependent. Such a relationship can be used effectively in filling up the missing gaps in NEE data through the season. Finally, a simple scaling analysis based on a linear flow model suggested that advection might play a significant role in NEE evaluation at this site.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.82-93
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• 2008

In order to ensure a standardized data analysis of the eddy covariance measurements, Hong and Kim's quality control program has been updated and used to process eddy covariance data measured at two levels on the main flux tower at Gwangneung site from January to May in 2005. The updated program was allowed to remove outliers automatically for $CO_2$ and latent heat fluxes. The flag system consists of four quality groups(G, D, B and M). During the study period, the missing data were about 25% of the total records. About 60% of the good quality data were obtained after the quality control. The number of record in G group was larger at 40m than at 20m. It is due that the level of 20m was within the roughness sublayer where the presence of the canopy influences directly on the character of the turbulence. About 60% of the bad data were due to low wind speed. Energy balance closure at this site was about 40% during the study period. Large imbalance is attributed partly to the combined effects of the neglected heat storage terms, inaccuracy of ground heat flux and advection due to local wind system near the surface. The analysis of wind direction indicates that the frequent occurrence of positive momentum flux was closely associated with mountain valley wind system at this site. The negative $CO_2$ flux at night was examined in terms of averaging time. The results show that when averaging time is larger than 10min, the magnitude of calculated $CO_2$ fluxes increases rapidly, suggesting that the 30min $CO_2$ flux is influenced severely by the mesoscale motion or nonstationarity. A proper choice of averaging time needs to be considered to get accurate turbulent fluxes during nighttime.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.11
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• pp.903-912
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• 2016

Accurate understanding and estimating Evapotranspiration (ET) is essential for understanding the mechanism of water cycle and water budget. ET has been analyzed by many researchers in worldwide while Ground-based ET has limiation in analyzing the spatio-temporal pattrens of ET. Thus, many researches have been conducted to represent the spatio-temporal variation of ET by using hydrometeorological variables estimated from remote sensing datasets. Previous remote sensing based ET algorithms, however, have disadvantage in that various hydrometeological input datasets were required. In this study, actual ET was estimated by MODIS-based Rn and MS-PT algorithm requiring relatively less input data than previous method. The result confirmed that the observed $R_N$ and latent heat flux from the eddy-covariance based fluxtowers located at CFK and SMK showed high correlation with the estimated $R_N$ and ET. The average determination coefficients ($R^2$) of ET estimated from satellite dataset over study periods were 0.77 (0.72-0.81) in Cheongmi (CFK) and 0.70 (0.67-0.78) in Sulma (SMK), respectively. Comparing with the actual ET of two flux tower sites, however, SMK showed more overestimated patterns than CFK due to the vegetation and radiation related errors.