NEON’s directive is to provide free and open data, samples, and infrastructure to enable the science of others. Our mission is to support researchers and the public to advance understanding of ecological processes and inform the sustainable management of U.S. ecosystems. The development of this plan was steered with these ultimate ideas in mind.
Dr. Paula Mabee, Observatory Director and Chief Scientist for the Battelle-managed NSF National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), spoke in late October at the G7 Italia Science & Technology Conference on LRIs. The conference was co-organized by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR) with the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) and held in Sardinia.
PFAS are a growing public health and environmental concern in communities around the globe. A community project, facilitated through the American Geophysical Union Thriving Earth Exchange (AGU-TEX) program and coordinated by Katie Matthiesen, is spreading awareness of PFAS dangers among residents in South Tucson, AZ.
In our latest Women in Ecology interview, we spoke with Dr. Mary Lofton, a postdoctoral research associate in the Center for Ecosystem Forecasting at Virginia Tech. Here, she shares her non-linear ecology journey, what she likes the most about being an ecologist, and the impacts she hopes to continue to make within the field of ecology.
BeetlePalooza 2024, hosted by the Imageomics Institute at OSU, brought together a diverse group of biologists, ecologists, and computer scientists to develop and refine AI tools for beetle identification and trait measurement. These AI tools could save substantial time for field ecologists and enable new discoveries, made possible only with very large image-based datasets.
Summer 2024 saw record-breaking heat and humidity. Across the Observatory, when temperatures rise, field staff safety is a priority. Take a look at how NEON staff beat the heat this summer in this photo blog.
NEON's Ambassador Program empowers and connects a group of researchers and educators who are eager to enhance NEON’s engagement with diverse communities, getting NEON resources into the hands of those making strides in the field of ecology. The newest cohort of Ambassadors is a fantastic selection of applicants of people from all backgrounds, expertise, and with diverse passions – learn a bit about them in this blog.
The NEON Airborne Observation Platform (AOP) gives detailed remote sensing data at field sites both before and after a natural disaster, providing insights into impacts and recovery. The AOP is also available through NEON Research Support Services to gather remote sensing data for disaster sites outside of NEON field site locations and schedule.
At ESA2024, the NEON booth had lots of traffic, and many people were interested in learning about NEON data. NEON staff and leadership members also participated in several contributed talks, short courses, and workshops. Here are a few highlights.
What drives the evolution of various mosquito traits, including those which make them vectors of disease? Dr. Brian Wiegmann used samples from the NEON Biorepository at ASU and other repositories to investigate the phylogeny of mosquitoes. He and his coauthors published their results in Nature Communications.
For our latest Women in Ecology interview, we spoke with Laura Steger, Environmental and Zoological Collections Manager for the NEON Biorepository at Arizona State University. Steger spent her childhood in nature, influencing her to continue in that environment and work with NEON, spending her time surrounded by different specimens and samples from many different ecosystems.
This year, surveys are being conducted at field sites representing 10 NEON Domains, including the Northeast (D01), Southeast (D03), Great Lakes (D05), Prairie Peninsula (D06), Ozarks Complex (D08), Central Plains (D10), Southern Plains (D11), Southern Rockies/Colorado Plateau (D13), Pacific Southwest (D17), and Taiga (D19).
In the U.S. Carolinas, where the Piedmont Plateau meets the Coastal Plain, rolling hills and deciduous forests give way to the longleaf pine forests of the Sandhills. This area provides ample opportunity to explore diverse regional habitats and investigate changing ecosystems. Thanks to an internship program supported by the Carolina Wildlands Foundation, students from local colleges and universities have the opportunity to gain fieldwork experience using protocols adapted from the NEON Program.
Arvind Varsani is interested in virus diversity at many scales and across species. He collaborated with Laura Steger and Kelsey Yule at the NEON Biorepository at ASU, along with other researchers, to explore the potential of extracting viral DNA from archived rodent fecal and liver samples. Their work was published recently in Virology.
A recent study using data from NEON aquatic sites shows that across the continent, under the right conditions, freshwater lakes and streams may act as both sources of atmospheric N2O, and as sinks for the gas. This behavior may help to partially offset N2O emissions and is crucial to account for in climate modeling.
For our latest interview, we spoke with Janey Lienau, a first-year Ph.D. student at the Yale School of the Environment. Lienau’s work in the soil lab focuses on the interaction between animals, plants, and soil in forest ecosystems. Her soil studies during the pandemic were made possible by NEON open data. She shares how her unique upbringing shaped her career aspirations, how she came to love fieldwork and asking questions, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
Using isotopic data from NEON is one way that scientists can look into markers of ecosystem change and health. An R Package developed by Dr. Rich Fiorella calibrates atmospheric stable isotope data, enabling comparative analysis across NEON sites and the development of derived data products. The NEONiso R Package is available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) and GitHub and has been incorporated into the NEON data processing pipeline for the carbon isotope data product.
Permafrost degradation is an urgent concern for Arctic ecosystems and the global climate. A recent paper in Environmental Research Letters leverages artificial intelligence to develop better predictive models of permafrost degradation. The researchers utilized data from NEON’s terrestrial field sites in Alaska to train the model, along with data from the AmeriFlux network.
Over the last few years, our Women in Ecology series has spotlighted some of the women who work with the NEON program or are advancing ecology using NEON data. For Women’s History Month, we wanted to revisit some of the Women in Ecology we’ve featured in the blog series. If you missed these interviews the first time around, we invite you to get to know these amazing women and their work.
Every year, NEON hires around 230 seasonal field technicians across the Observatory in addition to its full-time field staff. These staff are tasked with collecting field observations and physical samples at NEON field sites. They receive on-the-job training, develop field science skills that can boost their careers, and get to live and work in some of the continent’s most pristine and beautiful places.
How long does it take for rainwater on land to find its way into streams and waterways? Researchers used stable water isotope data to trace the movement of water through watersheds at NEON field sites; in many cases, paired terrestrial and aquatic sites. The results are published in a recent paper in Hydrological Processes.
Maintaining a 30-year, continental-scale observatory takes a lot of planning. How do you ensure data consistency and continuity across such large scales of space and time, staying functional and effective even through climate and ecosystem change?
In this latest Women in Ecology interview, we spoke with Dr. Nayani Ilangakoon, a research scientist at the University of Colorado - Boulder (CU Boulder) who received her Ph.D. from Boise State University. Ilangakoon is focused on the impact of wildfires on ecosystems, and pairs her childhood experiences in nature with remote sensing data from NEON to conduct her research.
A recent $1.6M award from the NSF through the AccelNet Program will support efforts to harmonize international, drought-related ecological data across several networks in different countries. The three-year AccelNet grant was awarded in September 2023 to Battelle. This "network of networks" approach will enable researchers to study the drivers and impacts of drought on a global scale.
A recent paper in Environmental Research: Ecology explores the potential for using air- and spaceborne lidar to monitor biodiversity on a global scale. The study used NEON airborne laser scanning (ALS) data with NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) spaceborne lidar to validate a unique approach that uses "characteristic" forest structure to infer biodiversity for areas difficult to directly sample.
The availability of large, open data sets is changing the way ecologists conduct research and the way ecology is taught. Open data from the NEON program and other large ecology networks are a potential goldmine for undergraduate and graduate educators.
Fall arrives at different times and in different ways across the Observatory. Here's a glimpse at how autumn is unrolling across NEON field sites, viewed through phenocams at our field sites, and how 2023 looks compared to 2022.
The NEON Great Lakes User Group brings people together in the Great Lakes region to foster collaborative research opportunities. In September, the first in-person meeting of GLUG was held, a workshop supported through an NSF award.
NEON has weathered several unexpected events. Through it all, the Observatory team, managed by Battelle, has responded with ingenuity, resilience, and a positive spirit to ensure the safety of our people and maximize data continuity and availability.
