For our latest interview, we spoke with Janey Lienau, a first-year Ph.D. student at the Yale School of the Environment. Lienau’s work in the soil lab focuses on the interaction between animals, plants, and soil in forest ecosystems. Her soil studies during the pandemic were made possible by NEON open data. She shares how her unique upbringing shaped her career aspirations, how she came to love fieldwork and asking questions, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
We reduced the number of dilution subsamples per root core in table bbc_dilution from 10 to 3 at all terrestrial sites. This change was reviewed and approved by the NEON Plant Biomass and Productivity Technical Working Group, and was implemented on 2023-08-02, saving 70% of the labor associated with time-intensive sorting of dilution subsamples.
Using isotopic data from NEON is one way that scientists can look into markers of ecosystem change and health. An R Package developed by Dr. Rich Fiorella calibrates atmospheric stable isotope data, enabling comparative analysis across NEON sites and the development of derived data products. The NEONiso R Package is available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) and GitHub and has been incorporated into the NEON data processing pipeline for the carbon isotope data product.
As of NEON’s 2024 Data Release, there have been modifications in the eddy covariance storage exchange (ECSE) workflow and bundled HDF5 files (DP4.00200.001).
Permafrost degradation is an urgent concern for Arctic ecosystems and the global climate. A recent paper in Environmental Research Letters leverages artificial intelligence to develop better predictive models of permafrost degradation. The researchers utilized data from NEON’s terrestrial field sites in Alaska to train the model, along with data from the AmeriFlux network.
NEON quantifies soil microbe biomass via measurement of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA). The high-throughput PLFA method used involves addition of an internal standard to each sample, then PLFA concentrations are scaled by the recovery of that internal standard. For data collected prior to November 1, 2021, PLFAs were reported in unscaled format with extraction efficiency provided in order for users to conduct the scaling. After November 1, 2021, unscaled data are no longer ingested, and only data scaled to the internal standard are provided.
Over the last few years, our Women in Ecology series has spotlighted some of the women who work with the NEON program or are advancing ecology using NEON data. For Women’s History Month, we wanted to revisit some of the Women in Ecology we’ve featured in the blog series. If you missed these interviews the first time around, we invite you to get to know these amazing women and their work.
An error in the samples endpoint of the NEON API returned incorrect taxonomy data for a subset of sample types, impacting some NEON Biorepository collection records and potentially other users of the samples endpoint. This issue does not affect data products accessed via the NEON Data Portal, neonUtilities, or the data endpoint of the API.
In response to the issues identified in a previous post, NEON staff are currently developing code specifically designed to correct timestamps in data processing. The impacted data will undergo reprocessing and be published as provisional data as soon as the code is ready. We aim to release the corrected data in the 2025 data release.
Every year, NEON hires around 230 seasonal field technicians across the Observatory in addition to its full-time field staff. These staff are tasked with collecting field observations and physical samples at NEON field sites. They receive on-the-job training, develop field science skills that can boost their careers, and get to live and work in some of the continent’s most pristine and beautiful places.
How long does it take for rainwater on land to find its way into streams and waterways? Researchers used stable water isotope data to trace the movement of water through watersheds at NEON field sites; in many cases, paired terrestrial and aquatic sites. The results are published in a recent paper in Hydrological Processes.
To resolve apparent negative blank-corrected nitrate + nitrite N concentrations in some soil potassium chloride (KCl) extracts collected prior to 2022, a statistical correction using quantile regression can be applied to the data. This correction has been added as an optional function parameter in the neonNTrans R package def.calc.ntrans function.
As of November 1, 2023, Particulate Mass (DP1.00101.001) samples are no longer collected at NEON sites. NEON’s Particulate Mass data product (DP1.00101.001) provides the mass of PM10 (particulate matter 10 micrometers or less in diameter) collected on quartz filters biweekly at six NEON sites; these filters are archived and made available for further analysis from the NEON Biorepository.
Maintaining a 30-year, continental-scale observatory takes a lot of planning. How do you ensure data consistency and continuity across such large scales of space and time, staying functional and effective even through climate and ecosystem change?
Beginning in the 2024 field season, there will be a maximum of 4 bouts of small mammal sampling (DP1.10072.001) per year at all sites as well as a maximum of 6 mammal grids per site. We are also introducing a low intensity sampling regime of 1 bout per year at 3 sites (DSNY, LENO, BARR) with extremely low capture rates, diversity, and pathogen infection.
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.
In this latest Women in Ecology interview, we spoke with Dr. Nayani Ilangakoon, a research scientist at the University of Colorado - Boulder (CU Boulder) who received her Ph.D. from Boise State University. Ilangakoon is focused on the impact of wildfires on ecosystems, and pairs her childhood experiences in nature with remote sensing data from NEON to conduct her research.
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.
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.
A recent $1.6M award from the NSF through the AccelNet Program will support efforts to harmonize international, drought-related ecological data across several networks in different countries. The three-year AccelNet grant was awarded in September 2023 to Battelle. This "network of networks" approach will enable researchers to study the drivers and impacts of drought on a global scale.
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.