The NEON mobile deployment platform: Designing a requestable community research tool

Background/Question/Methods

Many important ecological processes occur stochastically in space and time. Although the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental scale observatory it cannot cover the entire nation with high-intensity fixed-in-place observations. Mobile sampling capabilities are needed to fill spatial gaps and capture disturbance events occurring throughout the landscape. The NEON Mobile Deployment Platform (MDP) will focus on key areas or responses to key disturbance events. 

Results/Conclusions

We seek input from the LTER community on the National Ecological Observatory Network’s (NEON) PI and agency requestable Mobile Deployment Platform (MDP). The NEON MDPs will provide the means to observe stochastic or spatially important events, gradients, or quantities that cannot be reliably observed using fixed location sampling (e.g. fires and floods). Due to the transient temporal and spatial nature of such events, the MDPs will be designed to accommodate rapid deployment for time periods up to ~ 1 year. Broadly, the MDPs will be comprised of infrastructure and instrumentation capable of functioning individually or in conjunction with one another to support observations of ecological change, as well as education, training and outreach.  We aim to glean input on selecting infrastructure and instrumentation relevant to meeting the needs of NEON and the broader scientific community.