Data Notifications

Recent improvements in DNA sequencing technology and laboratory protocols are producing data of overall better quality and greatly expanded size. As a result there have been a lot of changes in NEON's microbial data products, and data released in the coming year will include many updates and new, improved data.

NEON's fourth data release, RELEASE-2024, is now available for download!

Beginning in the 2023 field season, the Herbaceous clip harvest (DP1.10023.001) data product is no longer collected at 11 forested sites where herbaceous productivity is less than 10% of aboveground productivity.

neonUtilities 2.4.1 is now available on CRAN! Read on to learn more about updates in this version.

Photosynthetically active radiation (quantum line) (DP1.00066.001) has been reprocessed using NEON’s new instrument processing pipeline. Computation of skewness and kurtosis statistics has been updated in the new pipeline.

Primary precipitation (DP1.00006.001) has been reprocessed with an interim algorithm to better show spurious trace precipitation and improve quality flagging.

Data for the Litterfall and fine woody debris production and chemistry data product (DP1.10033.001) were published without data on total cover of qualifying vegetation (woody individual > 2M height). RELEASE-2024 and releases and provisional data thereafter include a new table 'ltr_vegetationCover' that provides cover of qualifying woody vegetation at the scale of the subplot for all deployed traps at all sites.

Certain AOP data products will be temporarily unavailable or in transition prior to RELEASE-2024. We recommend holding off on downloading AOP data during this transition period, or using the Contact Us form to request the status of any specific AOP data product(s), site(s), and year(s). This process is estimated to be complete by the end of January 2024.

Data previously published with incorrect soil water content measurement uncertainties have been reprocessed and republished.

We have discovered an 8-minute timestamp offset in data from all Picarro instruments, beginning 19 September 2023 and ending 30 November 2023. This issue only affects data collected by the instrument, not the valves that control switching measurement levels, which leads to incorrect partitioning of data to each measurement level and validation gas in data processing.

NEON recently discovered two issues with the way an external laboratory was storing samples and reporting quality assurance data for foliar chlorophyll. All impacted records have been flagged in the cfc_chlorophyll table in DP1.10026.001 Plant Foliar Traits.

It was discovered that some sensorDepth values recently published in the Water Quality (DP1.20288.001) data product are incorrect for some lake sites. We suggest users download the expanded data package with the more detailed quality flags to better identify affected data, and then substitute an approximate depth of 0.5 m.

Issues identified in the previous posts AOP Lidar Data Quality Notification and AOP Lidar Data Quailty Notification - Update have been resolved.

At the 32 sites where breeding landbird point counts are conducted in 9-point grids, two-thirds of counts have been reported with incorrect point IDs due to a transposition error when convertingnumeric point labels (1-9) into alphanumeric point IDs (A1-C3) during data ingest.

An error in many of the sensor calibration files means that the reported measurement uncertainty in the soil water content data product (DP1.00094.001) is lower than the actual measurement uncertainty for many locations.

The conductivity timeseries data in Reaeration and Salt-based discharge are being moved into individual files per sampling event. This affects the rea_conductivityFieldData and sbd_conductivityFieldData tables. Users of these data should update neonUtilities to version 2.4.0 or greater to ensure correct data stacking.

The Data Portal and the neonUtilities R package have been updated to default to downloading only data from the most recent Data Release. Provisional data, which are subject to change without notice, are still accessible, but are downloadable on an opt-in basis, rather than opt-out.

The Data Portal and the neonUtilities R package are being updated to default to downloading only data from the most recent Data Release. Provisional data, which are subject to change without notice, will still be accessible, but will be downloaded on an opt-in basis, rather than opt-out.

The NEON naming convention for subplots within Base plots, at which several Terrestrial Observation (TOS) protocols are implemented, is being changed to clarify the location of data collection.

Through collaboration with Ameriflux Management Project (AMP), data from 27 NEON sites have been processed using ONEFlux software to generate the AmeriFlux FLUXNET data product.

The soil heat flux data processing code has been updated to account for the change in timing introduced by the new site infrastructure. All affected data have been reprocessed and republished and soil heat flux data availability has returned to previous levels.

It was previously reported that chlorophyll-a measurements in the Water quality data product (DP1.20288.001) were being reported in the wrong units starting in late 2021 or early 2022 and ending March 16, 2023 for the ten river and lake sites (BARC, BLWA, CRAM, FLNT, LIRO, PRLA, PRPO, SUGG, TOMB, and TOOK). The issue has been corrected, and all provisional data not included in RELEASE-2023 (collected since July 1, 2022) were updated on the Data Portal.

Starting in late 2022 all NEON terrestrial sites were updated with new infrastructure that, among other things, controls the self-calibration process for the soil heat flux sensors (DP1.00040.001). A number of factors have lead to a decline in the amount of valid soil heat flux data. The data processing code is being updated to correct this issue, and it is anticipated that the adjustments will allow soil heat flux availability to return to previous levels.

Have you used NEON data? Take our 2023 Data User Survey! NEON is gathering feedback from the community to better understand the accessibility, usability, and quality of NEON data products.

neonUtilities 2.3.0 is now available on CRAN! Read on to learn more about updates in this version.

The winter of 2022-23 brought above average precipitation to all of California, starting in early November (Figure 1). In Sierra Nevada, much of this precipitation fell during atmospheric river events that dropped four to six inches of water (two to six feet of snow) in no more than a few days, with most precipitation falling as snow above 6000 ft. The storms caused extensive damage to roads and buildings, road closures due to excessive snow accumulation or washouts, and low and mid-elevation flooding.

It was previously reported that grab sample pH measurements in Chemical properties of surface water (DP1.20093.001) did not always align with contemporaneous in-situ sensor pH measurements in Water quality (DP1.20288.001). In response, NEON has taken several corrective actions.

It was previously reported that chlorophyll-a measurements in the Water quality data product (DP1.20288.001) were being reported in the wrong units starting in late 2021 or early 2022 and ending March 16, 2023 for the ten river and lake sites (BARC, BLWA, CRAM, FLNT, LIRO, PRLA, PRPO, SUGG, TOMB, and TOOK). We are continuing to work on correcting and republishing the affected data.

When infrastructure damage, loss of power/communications, or other issues prevent data from streaming, NEON is able to put some sensors into logging mode, running off battery power and saving data internally. This data is planned to ultimately be ingested into our data processing pipeline and published. Some data are available in an Environmental Data Initiative repository.

This is an update to the earlier data notification, "Data Impacts for NEON’s Yellowstone Sites (YELL, BLDE) due to Catastrophic Flooding" in August 2022, which notified users of the gaps in data collection resulting from both power loss and extreme road damage that resulted from the flooding. As of October 31, 2022, the National Park Service opened a newly constructed road from Gardiner, MT to Mammoth, WY with minimal restrictions. Consequently, beginning on that date, normal operations in Domain 12 at YELL and BLDE were able to resume.