About Samples

NEON has been collecting specimens as part of its sampling program since 2012. In 2018, NEON began construction of the NEON Biorepository – a facility intended to archive most specimens curated by the NEON program - at the ASU Center for Biological Collections and Discovery in Tempe, AZ. The NEON Biorepository publishes records for every archived sample and specimen and makes these samples available for loan.

Sample Types

Explore the range of sample types archived at the Biorepository, including soils, organisms (whole and subsampled), and genomic extracts.

Browse sample types

Other Sample Repositories

Although the NEON Biorepository is the primary facility housing NEON samples, select specimens are held by other institutions. Requests for these samples should be made directly to the hosting organization.

List of Repositories

Sample Processing

Providing high-quality, richly contextualized samples is a key component of NEON’s mission and supports understanding of ecological processes at local, regional, and continental scales. Each protocol describes field collection of samples. Some samples are immediately curated for archive at the NEON Biorepository; others are collected for chemical, taxonomic, or genetic analysis.

Where possible, NEON archives the downstream products of these analyses. For example, the Biorepository archives remaining genomic DNA after small mammal ear tissue is processed for DNA sequence analysis. Researchers interested in intermediate sample products or additional sample collection can submit a NEON Research Support Services request.

Sample Identification and Labeling

Every sample is identified in the NEON database with a unique primary identifier. Samples receive a Sample Tag (sampleID) and/or Barcode (sampleCode) upon collection, and a Catalog Number (archiveGuid) upon physical accession at the Biorepository. Each sample also has a Sample Class (sampleClass) describing the sample type.

NEON data products that include sampling often record sampleIDs in their data tables. The variables table accompanying each download identifies the sampleID variable names and the tables in which they appear. Samples in the Biorepository can be searched by sampleID, catalog number, or barcode through the Sample Search page.

Sample Tags

A Sample Tag (sampleID) contains the information needed to differentiate specimens within the same sample class. Tags may encode the collection site or plot, date or time, taxon or sex, or a unique number, such as a small mammal tag number.

Sample tags are generated at collection within the field app, Fulcrum. As the observatory has moved into operations, sample tags have been supplemented and/or replaced by barcodes.

Pinned mosquito specimen with a sample tag — Sample tag on a pinned mosquito specimen.

Barcodes

Barcode (sampleCode) labels were first used on selected NEON specimens in 2017 and expanded to most sample types in subsequent years. NEON uses cryo-compatible labels for specimens stored at −20 to −196 °C and non-cryo labels for remaining samples. Non-cryo labels withstand exposure to solvents, particularly ethanol and water, and are designed for field conditions.

Within NEON systems, two different samples cannot share the same barcode. This allows barcode tracking to support duplicate checking in the database.

Specimen box with a barcode label — Barcode label on a specimen box.

Catalog Numbers

Upon arrival and check-in at the NEON Biorepository, samples receive a Catalog Number (archiveGuid). These identifiers are shorter, uniform, and globally unique across accessioned samples. Unlike sampleIDs, which vary in structure and length, catalog numbers provide a consistent reference for tracking samples across systems and managing research access and loans.

These identifiers are registered with SESAR, which assigns catalog numbers an IGSN ID through DataCite. Each sample is globally unique and web-resolvable through a DOI—for example, https://doi.org/10.58052/NEON01I8P.

Sample Classes

Sample Classes (sampleClass) roughly equate to sample types, which are organized into Collections within the Biorepository. For example, pinned carabid specimens (bet_IDandpinning_in.individualID) have a different class than mounted mosquito specimens (mos_identification_in.individualIDList).

The first part of a sample class name identifies the data table input into NEON’s database: bet = beetle, IDandpinning = identification and pinning activity, and in = ingest. The part after the period identifies the field in that table containing the sample identifiers.

New sample classes are often assigned as a field-collected sample moves through processing, so not all sample classes correspond to samples archived at the Biorepository.