The TERN Australia Soil and Herbarium Collection, a national ecological treasure

TERN (Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network) is Australia’s field-based ecological observatory; national research infrastructure for collecting, recording and sharing data and samples using highly instrumented monitoring sites, field surveys and remote-sensing techniques such as drones and satellites. TERN’s freely available long term monitoring data and samples are used by researchers, government decision makers and industry in Australia and internationally.

The TERN Australia Soil and Vegetation Collection is a purpose-built treasure trove for scientists, bringing together more than 150,000 soil samples, soil metagenomic samples, plant voucher specimens, plant samples and plant genetic material. Beginning in 2012, the TERN field monitoring program has data and samples from 1000 long-term ecological monitoring sites across the continent. The TERN Collection was recently added to Index Herbariorum, the global network of herbaria.

Unlike most soil and plant collections around the world, each sample in the TERN Collection is associated with comprehensive, highly detailed environmental information about the 100m x 100m survey sites where it was collected. All other specimens sampled at each site are also available, enabling complex research, discovery and understanding such as on relationships between soils, plants, carbon and environmental conditions. Botanists, ecologists, taxonomists and agricultural scientists are frequent users of this collection, and the samples can also be useful to microbiologists for a range of human and environmental health applications. The repository is openly available to interested researchers globally.

This state-of-the-art repository is contributing to important research critical to solving real-world problems, particularly in the areas of climate science, earth observation, conservation, and sustainability.