Organisms

To understand and forecast the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecological processes, NEON will sample organisms that are indicators of change:

• Microorganisms
• Mosquitoes
• Ground beetles
• Deer mice
• Fish
• Birds
• Plants
• Aquatic Invertebrates

NEON will also perform standardized measurements in areas that reflect the diversity and complexity of ecosystems, from the microbial to the continental scale, including:

• Biodiversity
• Population dynamics
• Phenology
• Infectious disease
• Biogeochemisty
• Microbial diversity and function
• Ecohydrology

Because the organisms sampled and measured are indicators or “sentinels” of change, we refer to this group of measurements as the NEON Fundamental Sentinel Unit (FSU).