A Message from Chief Scientist & Observatory Director Dr. Paula Mabee |
Hello again and Happy Holidays! As the end of 2022 approaches, and with Thanksgiving still fresh on my mind, I can't help but feel positive about the direction in which NEON is headed. I'm thankful for the immense efforts of our staff both at headquarters and across the Domains. Our temporary field technicians (TFTs) are wrapping up their seasons, and we would not be able to collect our data and do what we do without them. On top of it all, the number of publications using NEON data and resources topped 500 last month, and those papers have been cited over 13,000 times! I'm thankful for the privilege to be the Director of the Observatory, and I look forward to the increasing use of NEON to advance science.
We've had some amazing opportunities lately for networking and collaboration. In particular, we recently announced our work with Google Public Sector! NEON’s large datasets are used extensively by researchers and educators, but these data are still relatively new and rapidly growing. Through the new partnership between Battelle and Google, users can enjoy flexible, secure storage and delivery of NEON data through the Cloud, and can advance their research with cutting-edge tools and computing power. We're very excited to see where this leads and what new ways our data will be used!
Of course, December is time for the annual Fall Meeting for AGU! NEON and Battelle staff are back this year in person in Chicago, IL with an exhibit booth and many talks and posters. If you are attending, please check out our events, and we hope to see you there.
As always, I hope this finds you safe and well!
Sincerely,
Paula
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There will be several NEON-led events at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting, and many more talks that showcase the use of NEON data and other Battelle entities. We've made it easy to find everything NEON-related happening at the conference:
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Explore daily NEON events at AGU, videos, quick links, and find other resources on our website
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Exactly how does biodiversity impact the stability of communities over time and across scales? A recent paper in Nature: Ecology and Evolution uses NEON data to explore the relationship between plant biodiversity and temporal stability at both local and regional scales.
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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. Hear from D07 (Tennessee) and D17 (California).
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OTHER RECENT BLOGS
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.
A recent study published in Global Ecology and Biogeography explores how lidar and hyperspectral remote sensing data could be fused to improve estimates of plant biodiversity in temperate forests.
In August, ESA/CSEE 2022 in Montreal was the first in-person meeting for the societies since 2019, and there were plenty of reasons to be excited. Our favorite? Seeing talks and posters from researchers who are leveraging NEON data to explore critical questions in ecology, from population dynamics to carbon cycling. Here are three that caught our eye.
IN MEDIA
ExecutiveBiz, November 17, 2022
The Scientist, November 3, 2022
The University of Utah, October 26, 2022
UMaine News, October 6, 2022
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Each year, NEON hires hundreds of seasonal (temporary) field technicians (TFTs) to assist with observational sampling. NEON field sites are located in some of the nation's most pristine and wild areas. These seasonal opportunities are perfect for scientists who want to explore fieldwork and gain experience collecting data for a continental-scale ecology program.
These positions start in spring and end in autumn. Exact dates are based on sampling schedules in each Domain and vary by location. Learn more.
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RESOURCES, UPDATES, EVENTS, & OPPORTUNITIES |
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UPDATES
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. Read the announcement, and find more on the NEON data here.
NEON operations and restrictions due to safety impacts (e.g., COVID-19, wildfires, etc.) vary across the Observatory. NEON Leadership is continually assessing conditions across the Observatory. Read current operational status updates.
RESOURCES
Did you know NEON has over 295,000 samples stored at the NEON Biorepository? These samples are available upon request to support research studies and analyses. The GBIF database contains 764k NEON occurrences and 133 citations that have downloaded datasets that include NEON occurrences. Discover and access NEON's archived samples on the NEON Biorepository Data Portal. Explore the portal or take a virtual tour!
NEON offers a variety of tools and resources for instructors and faculty moving to online teaching. We realize that these are challenging times for our communities around the globe to delivery high quality education in novel online teaching environments. The data and resources from NEON are naturally suited for teaching ecological concepts and skills in both synchronous and asynchronous learning situations. Browse NEON's Learning Hub.
The NEON program generates ecological data on an unprecedented scale. Making sense of that data often requires sophisticated analytical techniques and computer programs. But if you’re not a coder, don’t worry—open source coding resources and community-made custom programs make NEON data more accessible to the ecology community. These resources are compiled in the NEON Code Resources Library.
EVENTS
This workshop will provide an introduction to discovering, accessing and preparing plant phenology observation data, primarily using R. The first section will feature an overview of the NEON plant phenology data collection protocol. The second section will include a code-along guide to (a) accessing data through the NEON API from an R environment using the neonUtilities package, (b) understanding the contents and quality of various data packages, and (c) performing common data merges, visualizations, summarizations, and transformations with NEON plant phenology data. This workshop is part of a greater data skills and science seminar webinar series, register here for upcoming Data Skills Webinars.
OPPORTUNITIES
We're excited to join you at this year's American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, which will be held both in person in Chicago, IL and online. There will be several NEON-related sessions, talks, and other events at AGU 2022. Learn more.
Battelle has partnered with Future Engineers and The Innovations in Climate Resilience Conference to host the first Battelle Climate Challenge. This challenge asks students to research past and future impacts of climate-related hazards in their communities and develop a proposed action to help build a more resilient community. The challenge is open to all 9- through 12-grade students in the U.S. The challenge winner will present at Battelle’s second annual Innovations in Climate Resilience Conference (March 28-30 in Columbus, Ohio) and win $5,000 in STEM grant for their nonprofit school, library or educational organization. For 2nd to 4th place, nonprofit schools, libraries, or educational organizations will receive a $1,500 STEM grant. Entries for the Battelle Climate Challenge will be accepted now through January 13, 2023. Learn more.
Apply to join the CU Boulder Earth Lab for a week-long event (February 13 - 17) to explore how cross-scale data synthesis can drive research on patterns of forest resilience and transformation! At the working group you will: develop skills through data- and compute-intensive workflow modules in R and Python; gain familiarity with National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) data products and potential uses; build a network of fellow forest ecosystem researchers and conservation practitioners; investigate critical synthesis questions. Learn more and apply.
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More and more researchers are using NEON data! Publications that use NEON data and resources are identified and imported into a public Zotero library, where they are tagged to make them easy to query.
View the newest publications here.
Learn how to find papers of interest here.
Knowing how NEON’s data, samples, and infrastructure are used in research is important to measure the program’s success. Please report your publications and related projects here and learn how to cite NEON here. If you know of a publication not included in the list, please notify us.
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