Savannas cover a significant portion of the Earth's land area and play an important role in carbon storage. The document discusses using phenocams to monitor the life cycle of understory vegetation in Australian tropical savannas. Phenocams were installed at multiple towers in Howard Springs, Australia to capture images of the canopy and understory over time and study how the understory vegetation grows during the wet season and is impacted by fires in the dry season. Preliminary analysis of the camera images provides insights into the fluxes in the understory ecosystem across the wet and dry seasons in these important savanna landscapes.

1. Monitoring the life of understory
vegetation in Australian tropical
savanna using phenocams
Caitlin Moore
Jason Beringer, Brad Evans, Lindsay
Hutley, Nigel Tapper

2. Why are savannas important?
• Savannas dominate 25 % of the global land surface and 20-25 % of Australia.
• They sequester c. 31.3 Pg C y-1 & account for c. 25 % of global GPP
• They support 20 % of the world’s human population
• In Australia, savanna accounts for 33 % of terrestrial carbon stores: they are a sink
for carbon
• Savanna structure and productivity is influenced by annual rainfall, soil nutrients,
CO2 fertilisation, herbivory and fire.
• The Northern Territory comprises c. 33 % of total savanna cover in Australia.
• Australian savannas are unique due to their minimal fragmentation, low human
population density and vegetation structure.
Information sourced from: Hutley & Beringer 2012, Scholes & Archer1997, Beer et al., 2010, House & Hall 200, Grace et al., 20061

3. Dry season Wet season - growth
Wet season - seeding Dry season - fire

4. Phenocams at Howard Springs

5. Phenocams at Howard Springs

6. Phenocams at Howard Springs

7. Phenocams at Howard Springs

8. Phenocams at Howard Springs

9. Phenocams at Howard Springs

10. Phenocams at Howard Springs

11. Canopy Understorey

12. Tower layouts and measurement points

13. Ecosystem Understory
Preliminary Fluxes…