The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a large-scale research platform dedicated to understanding environmental change across the United States. It provides open, standardized data to the scientific community and public, enabling understanding of how ecosystems are responding to a changing world. This observatory captures ecological patterns and processes over multiple decades.
Understanding the National Ecological Observatory Network
NEON is a continental-scale ecological observation facility that collects long-term data to understand Earth’s ecosystems and their changes. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by Battelle, NEON’s goal is to provide consistent data to detect and predict ecological shifts over decades. The network became fully operational in 2019, with a planned operational lifespan of 30 years.
The observatory’s mission is to provide an integrated scientific infrastructure that supports research, discovery, and education about ecological change across the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. NEON’s design supports understanding how land use, climate change, and invasive species influence biodiversity, disease ecology, and ecosystem services. This long-term, integrated data collection improves forecast models and resource management strategies for environmental change.
Data Collection Methods and Scope
NEON employs a standardized approach to data collection across 81 field sites, encompassing 47 terrestrial and 34 aquatic locations. These sites are distributed across 20 distinct eco-climatic domains, each representing unique vegetation, landforms, climate, and ecosystem characteristics. This broad geographical coverage allows for a continental-scale view of ecological dynamics.
Data collection at these sites involves three primary methods. Automated instrument systems, such as atmospheric towers and aquatic sensors, continuously collect data. Observational sampling involves trained field technicians conducting surveys of vegetation, insects, and small mammals during the growing season. Additionally, airborne remote sensing, using technologies like LiDAR and hyperspectral imagery, captures changes in topography, tree growth, and forest health from above.
These integrated methods allow NEON to measure a diverse array of ecological variables. Examples include climate data, hydrological parameters, biogeochemical cycles, biodiversity metrics, and indicators of land use change. The data products, numbering over 180, include biological, atmospheric, hydrologic, and geographic measurements, all collected with standardized protocols to ensure comparability across sites and over time.
Contributions to Ecological Science
NEON’s standardized, long-term, and geographically extensive data provides a baseline for detecting and predicting ecological change. This allows scientists to address ecological questions related to global environmental challenges. For instance, researchers can investigate the impacts of climate change on specific ecosystems or track the spread and effects of invasive species across different regions.
The integrated nature of NEON’s data supports hypothesis testing and model validation across multiple scales. By combining measurements from automated sensors, field observations, and airborne remote sensing, scientists can understand ecosystem processes. This comprehensive data set facilitates studies on biodiversity loss, water resource management, and the interactions between ecosystems, climate, and human activities.
NEON’s design measures the drivers of change and the ecological responses in areas such as biodiversity, biogeochemistry, ecohydrology, and infectious disease. The consistent data collection over decades helps establish links between ecological causes and effects, detecting and quantifying long-term changes. This foundational information informs resource management decisions and develops accurate environmental forecasts.
Accessing and Using NEON Data
NEON is committed to open science, making all data freely available through its online data portal. This accessibility ensures that researchers, educators, policymakers, and the general public can use the information. The data is organized and standardized, accompanied by detailed metadata for user-friendliness.
The availability of NEON data supports a wide range of applications, from academic research to educational initiatives and environmental management. Scientists can integrate NEON data with their own datasets to conduct broader studies on ecological change. Educators can use the data for teaching and training ecologists, while policymakers can use the information for informed environmental decision-making.