Primary Production

This thematic program focuses on monitoring the processes that drive the storage and emission of carbon in the Doñana ecosystems, in particular its fixation by primary producers and its subsequent consumption by herbivores.

It comprises the following monitoring topics:

1. Gas and water flows: Data from three Eddy-Covariance towers are used to estimate heat, water vapor and carbon dioxide fluxes – thus providing information on the carbon sequestration and evapotranspiration rates of three different ecosystems: brackish-marsh, shrubland and Juniper-forest. See live data. Request raw data.

Net Carbon Ecosystem Exchange (in g/m²) from April 2014 to April 2015 at Doñana’s Juniper woodlands. The upper inset shows the setup used to measure these data.

2. Biomass production of herbaceous plants: Data on biomass production and consumption by herbivores using paired, open and excluded plots have been measured at five habitat types: shrubland, grassland ecotone, bulrush marsh, glasswort marsh and marsh channels (caños).This monitoring program was discontinued in 2012. Request raw data.

3. Phenocams: The phenocams of ICTS-RBD provide automated, near-surface remote sensing of canopy phenology at eight different vegetation types across the Doñana Protected Areas. Images from these cameras are uploaded to the PhenoCam Networ server where they provide freely-accessible, continuous monitoring of vegetation phenology. Acccess here the real-time images of the phenocams placed at the reed-rush marsh, seaside bulrush marsh, clubrush marsh, marsh channel, white-poplar heronry, dry shrubland, wet shrubland and Juniper forest.

RBD image taken by the phenocam placed at the white-poplar heronry.