National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
c/o American Institute of Biological Sciences
1444 I St. NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005
Contact: Dan Johnson, 202/628-1500 x215
fax: 202/628-1509; djohnson@aibs.org

August 11, 2006

Ecological Society of America Features Two NEON Sessions

Leaders of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) briefed colleagues in the ecological science community on NEON design and education developments at the 91st annual meeting of the Ecological Society of American in Memphis, Tennessee, 6-11 August 2006.

NEON is a continental-scale research platform designed to gather a variety of long-term ecological data for discovering and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasives on ecology. The project, consisting of distributed sensor networks and experiments, is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and currently moving from its design phase to deployment and operations.

In a session titled “NEON at the Starting Line,” Dr. James A. MacMahon, Board Chair of NEON, Inc., noted that the two NEON documents of greatest interest to the scientific community (developed through three workshops of more than 150 scientists) have undergone merit review by NSF.

MacMahon reported that the NEON Networking and Informatics and Baseline Design (NIBD) was favorably reviewed and accepted by the Foundation. The Integrated Science and Education Plan (ISEP) received suggested changes from two NSF review panels in aspects of NEON governance, the deployment of equipment, and experiments.

“The NEON, Inc. Board has convened a new committee to make final revisions of the ISEP, and that process is well underway,” said MacMahon.

Dr. James P. Collins, NSF Assistant Director (Directorate of Biological Science), and Dr. Elizabeth Blood, NSF Program Director for NEON, joined MacMahon to present their perspectives on NEON and to discuss next steps for the project, which includes the release of a Request for Information to the NEON community.

In a second session on NEON education, Dr. Laurel Anderson (Ohio Wesleyan University) and Dr. Kerry Woods (Bennington College) engaged a group of scientists from undergraduate institutions in a discussion focused on how ecologists from colleges with diverse missions and resources can interact with NEON and participate in defining the Observatory’s future.