Goodman, Keli JÌý1Ìý;ÌýFitzgerald, MichaelÌý2Ìý;ÌýParker, Stephanie MÌý3Ìý;ÌýRoehm, Charlotte LÌý4Ìý;ÌýUtz, Ryan M.Ìý5Ìý;ÌýPowell, HeatherÌý6
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The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale ecological observation platform for understanding and forecasting the impacts of climate change, land use change, and invasive species on ecosystem structure and function. NEON will provide infrastructure and standardized methodologies to support research and education in the field of ecology, and the NEON data will be rigorously collected, calibrated, quality-controlled and made available to the public.
The NEON Aquatic Program includes a suite of field-based measurements and in-situ sensors that will discreetly and continuously track water quality at 36 sites across the nation in streams, ponds and large rivers. NEON partitions the United States into 20 ecoclimatic domains, with each domain hosting one wildland core aquatic site (i.e., a 30-year duration) and up to two relocatable site, which will move around the domain with the goal of capturing ecologically significant gradients (e.g., land use, nitrogen enrichment, urbanization). At each site, NEON will support a suite of aquatic sensor and measurements to provide data on biogeochemistry, surface and groundwater discharge, and stream and lake morphology. Biological measurements that cannot be easily measured with fixed instruments will be sampled using field-based procedures to assess key aspects of aquatic populations and communities, including microbes, algae, aquatic plants, invertebrates, and fish.
NEON’s open access approach to its data and information products will enable scientists, educators, planners and decision makers to map, understand and predict the effects of humans on the Earth and effectively address critical ecological questions and issues, such as the potential rates of change in water quality in our Nation’s freshwater bodies. NEON is currently building its first sites in Colorado. The first Aquatic site to be built is the Arikaree River, a wadeable stream in eastern Colorado.