WK 43

Plugging into NEON: Resources Available From the National Ecological Observatory Network

This session highlights current and future opportunities for utilizing the data and other resources available from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). NEON is an NSF-funded observatory with a mission to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of climate change, land-use change and invasive species on continental-scale ecology. It is a new major facility designed to provide data and information to scientists, educators, decision makers and the general public on biological processes and their responses to multiple stresses. With over 60 terrestrial sites and 36 aquatic sites in 20 domains, NEON provides data, infrastructure and standardized methodologies to support ecological research and environmental education across the continent, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Beyond its 60 flux towers and 36 instrumented aquatic sites, NEON infrastructure will include Airborne Observation Platforms (AOP) and Mobile Deployment Platforms (MDPs) that can be made available for use to support PI-driven research and to study the aftermath of major ecological events, such as hurricanes and large fires – i.e., targets of opportunity. NEON will also provide archived soil and organismal samples (e.g. beetles and mosquitos) that can be utilized for individual research. Presentations will describe the multiple ways scientists, educators, and others can already plug into, and utilize NEON’s resources. Our intent is to encourage others to begin thinking about how they may use NEON now and in the future.