Skip to main content
NSF NEON | Open Data to Understand our Ecosystems logo

Main navigation

  • About Us
    • Overview
      • Spatial and Temporal Design
      • History
      • Management
    • Advisory Groups
      • Advisory Committee: STEAC
      • Technical Working Groups (TWGs)
    • FAQ
    • Contact Us
      • Field Offices
    • User Accounts
    • Staff

    About Us

  • Data & Samples
    • Data Portal
      • Explore Data Products
      • Spatial Data & Maps
      • Document Library
      • API & GraphQL
      • Prototype Data
        • Prototype Data Ingest
      • External Lab Data Ingest (restricted)
    • Samples & Specimens
      • Discover and Use NEON Samples
        • Sample Types
        • Sample Repositories
        • Sample Explorer
        • Megapit and Distributed Initial Characterization Soil Archives
        • Excess Samples
      • Sample Processing
      • Sample Quality
      • Taxonomic Lists
    • Collection Methods
      • Protocols & Standardized Methods
      • AIrborne Remote Sensing
        • Flight Box Design
        • Flight Schedules and Coverage
        • Daily Flight Reports
        • Camera
        • Imaging Spectrometer
        • Lidar
      • Automated Instruments
        • Site Level Sampling Design
        • Sensor Collection Frequency
        • Instrumented Collection Types
          • Meteorology
          • Phenocams
          • Soil Sensors
          • Ground Water
          • Surface Water
      • Observational Sampling
        • Site Level Sampling Design
        • Sampling Schedules
        • Observation Types
          • Aquatic Organisms
            • Aquatic Microbes
            • Fish
            • Macroinvertebrates & Zooplankton
            • Periphyton, Phytoplankton, and Aquatic Plants
          • Terrestrial Organisms
            • Birds
            • Ground Beetles
            • Mosquitoes
            • Small Mammals
            • Soil Microbes
            • Terrestrial Plants
            • Ticks
          • Hydrology & Geomorphology
            • Discharge
            • Geomorphology
          • Biogeochemistry
          • DNA Sequences
          • Pathogens
          • Sediments
          • Soils
    • Data Policies & Citation Guidelines
    • Data Notifications
    • Data Management
      • Data Availability
      • Data Formats and Conventions
      • Data Processing
      • Data Quality
      • Data Product Revisions and Releases
        • Release 2021
      • Externally Hosted Data

    Data & Samples

  • Field Sites
    • About Field Sites and Domains
    • Explore Field Sites

    Field Sites

  • Impact
    • Observatory Blog
    • Case Studies
    • Spotlights
    • Papers & Publications
    • Newsroom
      • NEON in the News
      • Newsletter Archive

    Impact

  • Resources
    • Documents and Communication Resources
      • Papers & Publications
      • Document Library
    • Code Hub
      • Code Resources Guidelines
      • Code Resources Submission
      • NEON's GitHub Organization Homepage
    • Learning Hub
      • Science Videos
      • Tutorials
      • Workshops & Courses
      • Teaching Modules
      • Faculty Mentoring Networks
      • Data Education Fellows
    • Research Support and Assignable Assets
      • Field Site Coordination
      • Letters of Support
      • Mobile Deployment Platforms
      • Permits and Permissions
      • AOP Flight Campaigns
      • Excess Samples
    • Community Forum

    Resources

  • Get Involved
    • Advisory Groups
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • Community Engagement
    • Work Opportunities
      • Careers
      • Seasonal Fieldwork
      • Postdoctoral Fellows
      • Internships
        • Intern Alumni
    • Partners

    Get Involved

  • My Account
  • Search

Search

Impact

  • Observatory Blog
  • Case Studies
  • Spotlights
  • Papers & Publications
  • Newsroom

Breadcrumb

  1. Impact
  2. Observatory Blog

Observatory Blog

Collage of people featured in blogs
Category
Data Notification

AIS Field Maintenance and Calibration Data Now Available for Provisional Data

February 26, 2021

AIS field maintenance and calibration data are now available for the following data products for provisional data (primarily data collected July 1st, 2020 and after). Read on to see which data products provide these tables.

Spotlight

Women to Watch in Ecology for 2021

February 25, 2021

Our list of 'NEON Women to Watch' honors women we highlighted this past year whose educational and professional experiences provide a fascinating glimpse into women's paths in academic science, the crucial role of mentors and advocates in a student's development, and how the field can be more inclusive going forward.

Women in Ecology. Clockwise from upper left: Ana Bento, Alex Harmon-Threatt, Dana Chadwick, Nyeema Harris.

Getting to Know the NEON Domains: Prairie Peninsula

February 24, 2021

In the middle of North America, the eastern forests give way to the tallgrass prairie. This is the Prairie Peninsula (D06), in the heartland of the U.S. Sometimes called "America's Breadbasket," this region provides ample opportunity to study the impact of agriculture and land management practices on tallgrass prairie ecosystems. It also provides a unique view of a transitional zone between the prairies and the eastern deciduous forest.

Sky at KONZ

Observatory Status

February 22, 2021

COVID-19-related changes to operations across the Observatory, updated each Monday.

We are committed
Spotlight

EREN-NEON Flexible Learning Projects Enable Socially Distanced Ecology

February 17, 2021

The pandemic has created new challenges for educators—but that doesn't mean learning has to stop. The Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) collaborated with the NEON program in 2020 to create a series of Flexible Learning Projects that enable students to practice hands-on field ecology wherever they are—on campus or at home.

Be on flower
Spotlight

Thriving Earth Exchange and NEON Launch New Community Science Partnership

February 12, 2021

AGU's Thriving Earth Exchange Program has welcomed the newest cohort of Community Science Fellows, and first in partnership with NEON! This cohort is comprised of field staff across 12 of NEON’s Domains. Beginning in February 2021, they will be conducting outreach to communities within their Domains, and ultimately working with them to launch collaborative, co-developed community science projects that produce on-the-ground impact through application of NEON’s data and resources.

NEON TEX Fellows underwent 10 hours of TEX Community Science Training
Spotlight

SciTeens: Data Science and Ecology for Gen Z

February 10, 2021

SciTeens is the brainchild of founders Carlos Mercado-Lara and John Sutor, who started the organization in 2018 when they were high school seniors. Their mission is to make free STEM resources – including data science resources – accessible to all students through online curricula, outreach, and mentoring. They leveraged ecological data from the NEON program to create their first data science projects.

 John Sutor and Carlos Mercado-Lara, creators of SciTeens.
Data Notification

Microbial Community Composition Data Products Reprocessed And Available

February 9, 2021

The NEON microbial community composition data products have been re-processed and are available on the NEON data portal either as provisional data (data from December 2014 and earlier) or in the initial NEON data release (data from 2015 through October 2018) that is available now.

Spotlight

NEON-ESA Early Career Scholars Share Their Experience at ESA2020

February 9, 2021

NEON and the Ecological Society of America established a NEON-ESA Early Career Scholars (NECS) program for 2020 to support a group of early career scholars attending ESA2020. The chosen scholars received registration to the Annual Meeting, which centered on the theme of "Harnessing the ecological data revolution," and benefited from virtual networking with NEON.

BONA tower, AK
Data Notification

Updates to AOP’s Spectrometer Orthrorectified at-Sensor Radiance data product

February 4, 2021

AOP has updated the file name, format and metadata for the Spectrometer Ortho-rectified at-sensor radiance data product (DP1.30008.001). The compression of the data has improved, and updates to end users' code may be needed.

Data Notification

Orientation Discrepancies in Lake Buoy Wind Direction Data: Update 1

February 4, 2021

This is an update to the previous post concerning wind direction data on the buoys. NEON has field-verified wind monitor orientation discrepancies at most buoy sites, which adversely affect wind direction data in Wind speed and direction on lakes on-buoy (DP1.20059.001). Buoy wind direction data will be corrected with measured offsets and/or quality flagged following further review over the next 6 months.

Case Study

After the Fire: Studying Forest Recovery and Carbon Storage Potential

February 3, 2021

Dr. Jennifer Balch, a Fire Ecologist at University of Colorado Boulder, is studying wildfire-impacted areas in the western U.S. to answer burning questions about forest recovery and carbon storage potential. Her work could lead to improved models of the impact of wildfires on atmospheric carbon levels and climate change.

Wildfire on ridge
Data Notification

Resolved: fDOM temperature and absorbance correction algorithm updates

January 29, 2021

Issues identified with fDOM temperature and absorbance data have been resolved. The correct fDOM data are available on the portal and were included in NEON's first data release.

Data Notification

Known Issues in neonUtilities 2.0.0

January 27, 2021

There are a few known code bugs in neonUtilities 2.0.0. A patch update resolving these bugs will be delivered in February, and workarounds for avoiding them are described here.

The Roadmap for NEON Instrument Systems: Real-Time Monitoring and Predictive Analytics

January 27, 2021

A new remote monitoring and near real-time alert system is helping NEON scientists rapidly detect and diagnose data anomalies that may indicate a problem with sensors or software.

A clogged throughfall sensor in the field.
Data Notification

New version of neonUtilities (2.0.0)

January 26, 2021

neonUtilities 2.0.0 is now available on CRAN! This new version contains critical updates for working with the NEON Data Release and associated API and Portal changes. An update to 2.0.0 is required for working with any newly downloaded data.

Data Notification

Delay in analysis of external lab surface water and groundwater nutrient data

January 25, 2021

Based on an analysis of nutrient data, NEON has determined that the method detection limits (MDLs) required of the external laboratory for surface water and groundwater nutrient analyses are too high for many sites. New analyses of frozen samples will take place in the future.

Data Notification

Surface water microbe cell count (DP1.20138.001) lab data corrections pending

January 20, 2021

Surface water microbe cell count (DP1.20138.001) laboratory data for all aquatic sites from 9/2017 to 9/2020 were found to have incorrect calculations populating rawMicrobialAbundance data field. Data have been removed from the data portal while revisions are made and will be republished by February.

Spotlight

Women in Ecology – Alex Harmon-Threatt

January 20, 2021

Dr. Harmon-Threatt, associate professor of entomology at the University of Illinois School of Integrative Biology, discusses how her mentors first opened her eyes to the possibility of pursuing a career in ecology and how she hopes to provide the same opportunities to her female students, especially those of color, to increase the representation of women of color in academia and the natural sciences.

Alexandra Harmon-Threatt
Data Notification

Plant and soil samples not re-dried prior to carbon/nitrogen analyses, impacts to data quality

January 19, 2021

Due to a miscommunication, samples analyzed for carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations and stable isotopes were not previously re-dried prior to weighing and analysis at the external laboratory. Affected data have been flagged and a new protocol was implemented.

Data Notification

Resolved: Surface water and groundwater elevation data improvements

January 14, 2021

To reduce uncertaintly in surface and groundwater elevation data, permanent benchmarks have been installed at most aquatic sites to serve as controlled location reference points. Updated elevations from the associated site resurveys are available on the data portal. Surface and groundwater elevation data products have been reprocessed, and, the corrected data will be available via the data portal by January 18, 2020.

Data Notification

New version of neonUtilities (1.3.9)

January 12, 2021

neonUtilities 1.3.9 is now available on CRAN. This update includes minor bug fixes.

Getting to Know the NEON Domains: Great Lakes

December 30, 2020

The Great Lakes Domain (D05) is named for its most recognizable feature: the Great Lakes themselves. At our field sites in Wisconsin and Michigan, we're collecting data representing different management practices in the northern pine and hardwood forests. The data will help researchers understand how land management practices impact both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the Great Lakes region.

Little Rock Lake with a Buoy on it
Case Study

Sorting Out the Taxonomy of North American Diatoms

December 23, 2020

An investigation into freshwater diatoms from the NEON aquatic field sites in Puerto Rico led to a reclassification of diatom taxa in the region, and the possible discovery of a new diatom species. A paper recently published in Phytotaxa details the results of the research, which was enabled by samples from the NEON Biorepository.

Live marine diatoms from Antarctica (magnified)
Data Notification

Upcoming Error Corrections for Tick Data

December 21, 2020

We have discovered an error in the larval tick count data collected in 2016-2017 in Ticks sampled using drag cloths (DP1.10093.001) that affects all sites. Samples from the tick taxonomy laboratory had a count of 1 larva in the taxonomy table no matter how many individuals were present in the sample. The data will be rectified within 2-3 weeks.

Spotlight

NEON Spotlight: The Best of 2020

December 16, 2020

NEON's 2020 contributions demonstrate the significant impact this data has on ecological science. Here are 10 of the most exciting news items from the NEON program in the past year.

Disney Wilderness Preserve (DSNY) terrestrial field site at sunset.
Data Notification

Update 6: Microbial Community Composition Data Products Being Reprocessed

December 15, 2020

The NEON microbial community composition data products have been re-processed and will be available on the NEON data portal either as provisional data (2014-12 and earlier data, 2018-10 and later data) or in the initial NEON data release (2015 through 10-2018 data) in January 2021.

Data Notification

Resolved: Temporary removal of foliar trace element data

December 15, 2020

The sunlit plant foliage major, minor, and trace element data (DP1.10026.001, cfc_elements table) collected in 2017 and 2018 were investigated and deemed untrustworthy. Sample major, minor, and trace elements were re-measured using foliar material from the NEON Biorepository. Following review, these new data were posted to the Data Portal on 2020-10-29.

Virtual Background Photo Contest Winners!

December 14, 2020

NEON employees submitted and voted on the best picks for virtual background photos, and the results are in!

First Place: Disney Wilderness Preserve. Photo by Wayne Hall.
Spotlight

NEON Program Welcomes Postdoctoral Fellows

December 9, 2020

The NEON program is excited to welcome our first cohort of Postdoctoral Fellows! Starting in January 2021, these three early-career scientists will be working in collaboration with NEON staff and the wider user community to leverage NEON data for scientific discovery.

Kelly Aho in the field

Pagination

  • Current page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • Page 10
  • Page 11
  • Page 12
  • Page 13
  • Next page
  • Last page
NEON Logo

Follow Us:

Join Our Newsletter

Get updates on events, opportunities, and how NEON is being used today.

Subscribe Now

Footer

  • My Account
  • About Us
  • Newsroom
  • Contact Us
  • Terms & Conditions

Copyright © Battelle, 2019-2020

The National Ecological Observatory Network is a major facility fully funded by the National Science Foundation.

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.