The NEON fish sampling design

Background/Question/Methods

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) will collect data on aquatic organisms over 30 years, thereby enabling the research community to assess ecological response to climate change and land use change at regional and continental scales.  To allow data integrations over multiple spatial and temporal scales, the Observatory requires standardized, consistent methodologies for field data collection.  Here, we define the strategy and details of the fish sampling plans at wadeable streams and shallow lakes.  One consideration is whether reach-scale or macrohabitat-scale sampling is the most useful sampling design for NEON.  NEON’s main objective is to provide data to assess changes in fish diversity over space and time. 

Fish sampling will be conducted annually using standardized procedures. NEON-generated fish data will allow the research community to assess changes in biodiversity over spatial and temporal scales within a physical-chemical-foodweb context.  Data will also reveal invasive species encroachment and native species loss at each site.  The NEON Aquatic Program also includes a suite of in-situ water quality sensors; biogeochemistry measurements including stream metabolism and nutrient flux rates; surface and groundwater discharge; stream and lake morphology; and diversity of microbes, algae, plants, and macroinvertebrates.  The NEON Observatory is a platform to which researchers can add measurements and experiments, thus expanding one’s ability to assess fish community response to changes in environments at continental-to-regional-to-local scales.

Results/Conclusions

NEON is a national-scale research platform for assessing the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecosystem structure and function.  NEON data include terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric measurements distributed over 20 ecoclimatic domains across the country.  Data will be rigorously collected, calibrated, quality-controlled, and made freely available to the public.  The NEON observatory will support 36 aquatic sites: wildland core site that remain in place for 30 years and 1-2 relocatable sites that will move every 5 years to capture regional gradients.