National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a facility program operated by Battelle Memorial Institute and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). In full operation since 2019, NEON gathers and provides long-term, standardized data on ecological responses of the biosphere to changes in land use and climate, and on feedback with the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. NEON is a continental-scale research platform for understanding how and why our ecosystems are changing.
Vision and mission
The vision for NEON is to guide global understanding and decisions in a changing environment with scientific information about continental-scale ecology through integrated observations, experiments and forecasts. NEON's mission is to design, implement and operate the first and foremost integrated continental‐scale scientific infrastructure to enable research, discovery and education about ecological change. NEON collects ecological and climatic observations across the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The observatory is among the first to detect and enable forecasting of ecological change at continental scales over multiple decades. NEON has partitioned the United States into 20 ecoclimatic domains, each of which represents different regions of vegetation, landforms, climate, and ecosystem performance. Data is collected by field technicians and passive sensors at strategically selected sites within each domain and synthesized into information products that can be used to describe changes in the nation's ecosystem through space and time. NEON data products are freely available via a web portal.
Purpose and function
Science
The data NEON collects are defined by a series of Grand Challenges, as identified by the National Research Council at the request of the National Science Foundation. The National Research Council established a committee to evaluate the major ecological, environmental, and national concerns that require a continental-scale observatory, and it identified the following Environmental Grand Challenges:
Biogeochemistry: The study of how chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes combine to create the natural environment. Biodiversity: The full range of life forms on earth, or in a particular region. Climate change: A significant long-term change in the kind of weather we would expect based on averages calculated from climate data. Ecohydrology: The study of how organisms interact with their environment and with the constant movement of water. Infectious Diseases: Diseases spread by viruses, parasites, and bacteria that are sometimes transmitted to people by animals, birds, and insects. Land Use: The many ways that people change the natural landscape and environment, such as by building cities, cutting down forests, or planting crops. Invasive Species: Plants and organisms that overpopulate a particular place, or species that move into areas they have not lived in before. Thus, the data and observations that NEON collects focuses on how land use, climate change and invasive species affect biodiversity, disease ecology, and ecosystem services. Obtaining integrated data on these relationships over a long-term period is crucial to improving forecast models and resource management for environmental change. The National Science Foundation's vision for NEON is described as:
"A continental scale research instrument consisting of geographically distributed infrastructure, networked via state-of-the-art communications. Cutting-edge lab and field instrumentation, site-based experimental infrastructure, natural history archive facilities and/or computational, analytical and modeling capabilities, linked via a computational network will comprise NEON. NEON will transform ecological research by enabling studies on major environmental challenges at regional to continental scales. Scientists and engineers will use NEON to conduct real-time ecological studies spanning all levels of biological organization and temporal and geographical scales. NSF disciplinary and multi-disciplinary programs will support NEON research projects and educational activities. Data from standard measurements made using NEON will be publicly available.” (NSF 04549, 2004) NEON is specifically designed to address central scientific questions about the interactions of ecosystems, climate, and land use:
How will ecosystems and their components respond to changes in natural- and human-induced forcings such as climate, land use, and invasive species across a range of spatial and temporal scales? And, what is the pace and pattern of the responses? How do the internal responses and feedbacks of biogeochemistry, biodiversity, hydroecology, and biotic structure and function interact with changes in climate, land use, and invasive species? And, how do these feedbacks vary with ecological context and spatial and temporal scales?
Education The data and information products that NEON collects and provides is readily available to scientists, educators, students, decision makers and the public to use to understand and address ecological questions and issues. Data is provided as meaningful information and learning tools that engage many audiences, including members of underserved communities, and promote broad ecological literacy.
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