Our field staff at D20 do an amazing job engaging with the local communities, especially with STEM educators, students, and the next generation of ecologists. Here are just a few highlights from a unique Domain.
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.
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 for the ten river and lake sites. The underlying cause has been fixed, and all data collected after 16 March 2023 are reported in the correct units.
Plant scientist Nidhi Vinod, Ph.D. student at UCLA, is an incredible example of what it means to be a successful scientist who has overcome barriers in her field. In interviewing her, we learned of the societal and financial pressure she faced in paving her path forward in the field of ecology, how intertwined her relationship with her ancestors and spirituality is with her love for ecology, and the work she is doing – some utilizing NEON data – to contribute to ecology worldwide.
High-tech sensors and monitors are transforming agriculture, enabling farmers to optimize yields and improve efficiency. Arable, a provider of smart digital agriculture solutions, is using the NEON program infrastructure through a NEON Assignable Assets project to calibrate and validate their sensor technology in various climate zones and ecosystems across the U.S.
AGU's Thriving Earth Exchange Program (AGU-TEX) has welcomed a new group of Community Science Fellows in partnership with NEON! This cohort is comprised of field staff across 4 of NEON's Domains. Beginning in this year, they will be conducting community outreach, and ultimately working with AGU-TEX to launch collaborative, co-developed community science projects that produce on-the-ground impact through application of NEON's data and resources.
It's Phenology Week at the National Phenology Network! USA-NPN tracks the status of spring each year with maps generated by data from citizen scientists via Nature's Notebook along with data from scientific organizations like the NEON program. Signs of spring progress are also seen across our field site phenocams!
Chlorophyll-a measurements in the Water quality data product (DP1.20288.001) are being reported in the wrong units starting in late 2021 or early 2022 for the ten river and lake sites. Read on for more information on the issue and actions being taken.
Battelle Senior Ecologist Eric Sokol with the NEON Program works with the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (MCM LTER) Project to gather and produce ecological data and resources, in one of the most remote locations in the world.
Sensor positions files published with instrument data provide spatial information about the physical locations of sensors. The variable names in these files have been updated to more accurately describe the contents of each column, and descriptions of each variable have been added to the variables files.
The NEON stream site in Domain 04 which was being called Río Guilarte is actually located in the Río Yahuecas. This happened because both streams are located within the same USGS 12-digit Hydrologic Unit (210100030201, Río Guilarte at Lago Yahuecas Dam). Moving forward, the site name in NEON documentation will be updated to Río Yahuecas, while the 4-digit NEON siteID used to retrieve the data from the NEON data portal and the API will remain "GUIL."
The NEON program supports 34 aquatic field sites, including lakes, wadeable streams, and non-wadeable rivers. These sites—many of them colocated with NEON terrestrial field sites—provide a deluge of data for ecologists interested in aquatic ecology and limnology.
Dr. Kyla Dahlin of Michigan State University says support networks and mentors have helped her pursue a career researching landscape and plant ecology, remote sensing, and Earth system modeling. From making management plans for city parks, to thinking globally about ecology, she has seen a lot in her STEM journey.
The National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR), NEON, and CI Compass have worked to bring about the NCAR-NEON-Community Collaborations. Their efforts now link atmospheric and ecological science communities to begin seeking meaningful data together.
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Jianwu (Jim) Tang this January. He was a respected senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Ecosystems Center (University of Chicago), Woods Hole, Massachusetts, who made many contributions to making NEON what it is today.
When researchers come together, good things happen—especially when they have access to open data. The connections made at the 2019 NEON Science Summit led to a number of new studies and published papers. Now, we're looking forward to the 2023 ESIIL Innovation Summit - applications to attend the Summit are due January 22!
Blue oaks are a keystone species in the woodlands of central California; however, climate change and land management practices have threatened populations in many areas. NEON's Sokaina Alkhafaji partnered with the Sierra Foothill Conservancy and the University of California Cooperative Extension to develop blue oak monitoring protocols that could be used by landowners and conservation organizations across the state.
For the latest post in this series, we feature Lori Petrauski, a NEON Senior Field Ecologist for Domains 18 and 19 (Tundra and Taiga) in Alaska. Inclusivity, appreciation for nature, and critical thinking about how ecology can help to understand future impacts are at the forefront of her approach to science.
Treetop leaf sampling at forested NEON field sites just got a whole lot easier. We've added a new tool to our kit: an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone. Drone-based foliar sampling has been added as an official NEON protocol for forested sites. The UAV will also be available for use in the Assignable Assets program.
In this 7th Domain Digest, hear from two Domains about their collaborations with student programs designed to give the next generation of scientists experience with hands-on ecology.
Battelle NEON is working with Google Public Sector to leverage the speed and power of Google Cloud's artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities to accelerate discovery and get ecological data into the hands of scientists, educators, and decision makers.
Exactly how does biodiversity impact the stability of communities over time and across scales? A recent paper uses NEON data to explore the relationship between plant biodiversity and temporal stability at both local and regional scales.
A new paper in Journal of Animal Ecology uses NEON lidar data plus observational data to explore relationships between animal species richness and various local and regional variables. The goal? To determine which variables have the best predictive power for species richness at different scales.
