National Ecological Observatory Network
Encyclopedia
National Ecological Observatory Network, Inc. (NEON, Inc.) is an independent 501(c)3 corporation created to manage large-scale ecological observing systems and experiments on behalf of the scientific community. NEON is an observatory managed by NEON, Inc. and is funded by the National Science Foundation
. NEON itself is not a funding agency.
NEON, Inc. recently completed a design review process for NEON. In late July 2011, the National Science Foundation awarded NEON, Inc. funding to being construction on the NEON project The construction phase is expected to last five to seven years, and NEON is expected to begin full operation in 2016 or later.
through integrated observations, experiments and forecasts.
NEON, Inc.’s Mission is to design, implement, and operate the first and foremost integrated continental‐scale scientific infrastructure to enable research, discovery and education about ecological change.
NEON will create a new national observatory network to collect ecological and climatic observations across the continental United States, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The observatory will be the first of its kind designed to detect and enable forecasting of ecological change at continental scales over multiple decades. NEON has partitioned the United States into 20 eco-climatic domains, each of which represents different regions of vegetation, landforms, climate, and ecosystem performance. Data will be collected by field technicians and passive sensors at strategically selected sites within each domain and synthesized into information products that can be used to describe changes in the nation's ecosystem through space and time. NEON data products will be freely available via a web portal.
Thus, the data and observations that NEON collects will focus on how land use, climate change and invasive species affect biodiversity, disease ecology, and ecosystem services. Obtaining integrated data on these relationships over a long-term period is crucial to improving forecast models and resource management for environmental change.
The National Science Foundation's vision for NEON is described as:
NEON is specifically designed to address central scientific questions about the interactions of ecosystem
s, climate
, and land use:
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
. NEON itself is not a funding agency.
NEON, Inc. recently completed a design review process for NEON. In late July 2011, the National Science Foundation awarded NEON, Inc. funding to being construction on the NEON project The construction phase is expected to last five to seven years, and NEON is expected to begin full operation in 2016 or later.
Vision and Mission
The Vision of NEON, Inc. is to guide global understanding and decisions in a changing environment with scientific information about continental-scale ecologyEcology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
through integrated observations, experiments and forecasts.
NEON, Inc.’s Mission is to design, implement, and operate the first and foremost integrated continental‐scale scientific infrastructure to enable research, discovery and education about ecological change.
NEON will create a new national observatory network to collect ecological and climatic observations across the continental United States, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The observatory will be the first of its kind designed to detect and enable forecasting of ecological change at continental scales over multiple decades. NEON has partitioned the United States into 20 eco-climatic domains, each of which represents different regions of vegetation, landforms, climate, and ecosystem performance. Data will be collected by field technicians and passive sensors at strategically selected sites within each domain and synthesized into information products that can be used to describe changes in the nation's ecosystem through space and time. NEON data products will be freely available via a web portal.
Science
The data NEON collects are defined by a series of Grand Challenges, as identified by the National Research Council at the request of the National Science Foundation. The National Research Council established a committee to evaluate the major ecological, environmental, and national concerns that require a continental-scale observatory, and it identified the following Environmental Grand Challenges:- BiogeochemistryBiogeochemistryBiogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment...
: The study of how chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes combine to create the natural environment. - BiodiversityBiodiversityBiodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
: The full range of life forms on earth, or in a particular region. - Climate changeClimate changeClimate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
: A significant long-term change in the kind of weather we would expect based on averages calculated from climate data. - EcohydrologyEcohydrologyEcohydrology is an interdisciplinary field studying the interactions between water and ecosystems. These interactions may take place within water bodies, such as rivers and lakes, or on land, in forests, deserts, and other terrestrial ecosystems...
: The study of how organisms interact with their environment and with the constant movement of water. - Infectious Diseases: Diseases spread by viruses, parasites, and bacteria that are sometimes transmitted to people by animals, birds, and insects.
- Land UseLand useLand use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
: The many ways that people change the natural landscape and environment, such as by building cities, cutting down forests, or planting crops. - Invasive SpeciesInvasive species"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
: Plants and organisms that overpopulate a particular place, or species that move into areas they haven’t lived in before.
Thus, the data and observations that NEON collects will focus on how land use, climate change and invasive species affect biodiversity, disease ecology, and ecosystem services. Obtaining integrated data on these relationships over a long-term period is crucial to improving forecast models and resource management for environmental change.
The National Science Foundation's vision for NEON is described as:
"A continental scale research instrument consisting of geographically distributed infrastructure, networked via state-of-the-art communications. Cutting-edge lab and field instrumentation, site-based experimental infrastructure, natural history archive facilities and/or computational, analytical and modeling capabilities, linked via a computational network will comprise NEON. NEON will transform ecological research by enabling studies on major environmental challenges at regional to continental scales. Scientists and engineers will use NEON to conduct real-time ecological studies spanning all levels of biological organization and temporal and geographical scales. NSF disciplinary and multi-disciplinary programs will support NEON research projects and educational activities. Data from standard measurements made using NEON will be publicly available.” (NSF 04549, 2004)
NEON is specifically designed to address central scientific questions about the interactions of ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
s, climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
, and land use:
- How will ecosystems and their components respond to changes in natural- and human-induced forcingsRadiative forcingIn climate science, radiative forcing is generally defined as the change in net irradiance between different layers of the atmosphere. Typically, radiative forcing is quantified at the tropopause in units of watts per square meter. A positive forcing tends to warm the system, while a negative...
such as climate, land use, and invasive species across a range of spatial and temporal scales? And, what is the pace and pattern of the responses? - How do the internal responses and feedbacks of biogeochemistry, biodiversity, hydroecology, and bioticBiotic componentBiotic components are the living things that shape an ecosystem. A biotic factor is any living component that affects another organism, including animals that consume the organism in question, and the living food that the organism consumes. Each biotic factor needs energy to do work and food for...
structure and function interact with changes in climate, land use, and invasive species? And, how do these feedbacks vary with ecological context and spatial and temporal scales?
Education
The data and information products that NEON collects and provides will be readily available to scientists, educators, students, decision makers and the public to use to understand and address ecological questions and issues. NEON's educational team will translate these data into meaningful information and learning tools that engage many audiences, including members of underserved communities, and promote broad ecological literacy.External links
- NEON official website
- 6 minute overview video about NEON
- Report in the journal Nature on NEON status and planning. (purchase required)
- Free summary of the above Nature report.
- Neon: Addressing the Nation's Environmental Challenges by the Board of Life Sciences of the National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, published 2003