Northeastern Ecological Observatory
Description
The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) program is a major initiative proposed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a national platform for integrated studies and monitoring of natural processes at all spatial scales, time scales, and levels of biological organization. NEON will provide the resources and infrastructure for fundamental biological research that will enhance our understanding of the natural world, improve our ability to predict the consequences of natural and anthropogenic events, and inform our environmental decision makers. NEON will be a network of networks, a system of environmental research facilities and state of the art instrumentation for studying the environment. Each node in NEON will be a regional observatory, comprised of a core site and associated sites such as field stations, government research sites, museums, and universities. These observatories will be geographically distributed and will cover the entire U.S. See Map.
Current Events - Northeast NEON Meeting
NSF and NEONInc have released two reports and indicated that an RFP for a prospectus from each NEON Domain (region) will be coming out in 2-3 months, with the prospectus due in 6-9 months.
Minutes of Meeting conducted at Harvard Forest in April are now available.
Meeting Agenda: Overview of the NEON Planning Process and ISEP; Discussion of potential configurations for a Northeastern District and Sites; Initial planning for the development of a Northeastern Prospectus - See NEON District Criteria and Background Information.
NEON Participants Listing
Please add your name to the participant listing if you would like to receive email about NEON. In addition, you can use the list to identify other participants with similar fields of interest.
The NEON Integrated Science and Education Plan (ISEP2006Feb2.pdf) and Networking and Informatics Baseline Design (NIBD2006Jan27.pdf) are available at: http://www.neoninc.org/documents/#design We are interested in assembling a Northeast NEON organizing group so please let us know if you are willing to assist. email hampson@fas.harvard.edu to be added to our list.Purpose
NEON will enable integrative research on the nature and pace of biological change at local, regional and continental scales.
Neon's advanced technologies and continental scale connectivity will be used to measure all factors that affect the structure and function of ecosystems, for example the power of genomics will be applied to predicting how the spread of invasive species will affect native biodiversity.
New environmental technologies like wireless sensor arrays and real-time nanoscale analytical field instruments will be developed, tested and deployed at NEON.
Users
Biological, physical, and social scientists and engineers will use NEON to achieve a better understanding of our nation's environment as they collect, integrate and synthesize data across space and time.
Kindergarten through post-graduate students and teachers will use NEON information for educational activities and NEON facilities for research.
Local, state and national decision makers will use NEON to inform planning and policy decisions.
The American public will use NEON to get up-to-date information about environmental issues of interest to them.
Design and Development
The National Science Foundation has released an RFP for a $6 million competition for the development of a NEON coordinating consortium and program office.
It is important that each regional group connect as broadly as possible with scientists, educators, land management agencies, and other individuals and groups. If you are interested in receiving future updates and attending meetings of the Northeastern Regional NEON (NEEON) please let us know by registering your name and email.