NATIONAL ECOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY NETWORKDave Tazik & NEON TeamToolik Field Station Vision WorkshopPortland, OR 2-4 August 2012

A CONTINENTAL-SCALE OBSERVATION SYSTEM

A Continental Observation System

30 year period of observation

… to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive species on

continental-scale ecology

…by providing infrastructure to support research, education and environmental management in these areas

Causes of ChangeClimate

Land UseInvasive Species

Response to ChangeBiodiversity

BiogeochemistryEcohydrology

Infectious Disease

NEON Mission

An Integrated Observing System

REMOTE SAMPLING

ONSITE SAMPLING

DATA PRODUCTS

NAT. DATA SETS

IndividualTeam

CommunityManagers &

Policy--makers

A User Facility and Community Asset

A 30 year period of Observation

The NEON Questions

Where will NEON observe?

Observing Ecological Change

• Representative sampling

• Replication of gradients

• Detecting/attributing change over decades

• Standardized and transparent protocols

• Comprehensive set of observations

• Terrestrial and aquatic

• Sentinel taxa

• Field and lab analyses state-of-the-art

• QA/QC -- data quality and uncertainty

Free and open access to all NEON data*

* Unless legislatively protected

NEON Data Products

• ~ 1600 Level 0 data products (primary observations)o Raw voltages from sensorso Information on collected flora/fauna(e.g. counts)o External DNA or chemical analysiso Raw LiDAR returns

• ~ 540 Level 1 data (QA/C, minimally processed)o One-minute average air temperatureo Site-level species compositiono Georectified LiDAR

• ~ 75 Level 2 (rectified) & Level 3 (common gridded)o Gap-filled one-minute air temp (L2)o Gridded canopy nitrogen estimate (L3)

• ~ 120 Level 4 (high-level, cross-subsystem integrative)o Net ecosystem exchangeo Canopy nitrogeno Microbial diversityo Aquatic nutrient flux

• Terrestrial • Organismal (TOS)

• Instrumental (TIS)

• Aquatic• Organismal (AOS)

• Instrumental (AIS)

• Airborne (AOP)

• Research: Stream Ecological Observation Network (STREON)

Towers

Surface and ground water

Satellite Data

Airborne Remote Sensing

NEON Observing SystemsField Sampling

TIS – Terrestrial Instrument System

Atmospheric Measurements

Calibration for remotely sensing – Correct AOP for effects of incoming solar radiation, aerosols and water vapor

Ecosystem carbon, water and energy balance• Temperature

• Humidity

• Wind• Precipitation

• Radiation

• CO2

• Pollutants – e.g., ozone and reactive nitrogen

TIS -- Soil Array

Physical and carbon cycle responses • Temperature

• Moisture

• Carbon dioxide flux (soil respiration)

• Root growth

• Plant biodiversity • Plant biomass, leaf area, and chemical composition• Plant phenology• Birds• Ground beetles• Mosquitoes• Small mammals• Infectious disease • Soil microorganisms• Soil biogeochemistry

Terrestrial Observation System (TOS)

Terrestrial Biological

Field Sampling

• Algae

• Aquatic macrophytes, bryophytes and lichens

• Aquatic microbes

• Zooplankton

• Aquatic invertebrates

• Fish

• Aquatic habitat

• Sediment chemistry

• Water chemistry

Aquatic Observation System (AOS)

Aquatic Instrument System (AIS)Aquatic

Tempwater, DO, turbidity, pH, conductivity

Chromophoric dissolved organic matter

Chlorophyll

Discharge/water level

Nutrient Analyzer – nitrate, phosphate, ammonia

Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)

Bank-side – MicrometeorologyTempair, precipitation, barometric pressure, PAR, net radiation

Wind speed and direction

Camera

GroundwaterTemperature, level and conductivity

Sensor Design Testing

AOS/AIS – AQU/STREON

Experiment – STREON

NEON control reach

I

I

XO

I

I

STREON treatment reach

Instrument station, water sampling site

Experimental units (baskets )

Basket incubation (e.g. streamside flume or in situ recirculation chamber)

Nutrient addition station

water flowConsumer exclosure(electrified barriers )

XE

STREON – Stream Manipulation

Spectrometry• Vegetation biochemistry & biophysical properties• Cover type & fraction

3 X Twin Otter aircraft

LiDAR altimetry• Vegetation structure• Sub-canopy topography• Plant biomass

High resolution photography• Land use & land cover

Airborne Observation Platform

2014: Toolik, Barrow, Caribou-Poker, & Healy

The NEON Imaging Spectrometer

Continuous wvl coverage from 380 to 2510 nm High signal-to-noise ratio

(2x improvement over AVIRIS) 5 nm spectral sampling 1 mrad IFOV (1m GSD @ 1000 m flight altitude) High degree of uniformity across wvl‘s and field SWIR coverage provides information on

canopy moisture & nitrogen discrimination of non-photosynthetic components

Status• NISDVU delivered and operational• NIS-1 due 4/13; NIS-2 due 8/13

Lignin

Leaf area index

Nitrogen

Canopy height

Scaling Terrestrial

Observations

• 3 Airborne remote sensing systems

• 10 Mobile Deployment Platforms

• Sensor Infrastructure

• Biological Measurements

• Cyber-infrastructure

• CAL/VAL Lab

• Collections

NEON Assignable Assets

NEON – Generated Natural History Collections

• Voucher collections of sentinel taxa

• Analytical samples

– Replicates for future re-analysis

– For external PI-driven research needs

– Storage in case of funding shortfalls

• Vascular plants and algae

• Animal tissues and genomic extracts

• Microbial communities

• Soils and sediments

NEON – ALASKA

Toolik Site

CORE SITE AQUATIC / STREON

AQUATIC

• Construction mobilization & staging Feb 2015

• Civil infrastructure complete Jul/Aug 2015

• Field operations deployment May 2015 earliest

• Terrestrial instrumentation Sep 2016

• Aquatic/STREON instrumentation Sep 2016

Major Milestones**

**Tentative and subject to change

• Tower: 2m x 2m x 6 m (L-W-H)• Boardwalk: ≤ 1 m at ground level• Instrument hut: ~20’ x 9’ x 8’ (L-W-H)

– Instrumentation, equipment, tools, safety equip & non-haz gas cylinders• Soil array: 5 arrays, ~ 25m apart• Power Supply: generators – fuel storage at parking & staging area• COMM: could be tied into the GCI fiber line• Security: a gate at the top of the first flight of stairs• Site Access:

– Summer access: Boardwalk to instrument tower– Winter access: Access via snowmobile and snowshoes

• Site Remediation: – Site Decommissioning and Restoration Plan– Host-specific requirements

Infrastructure

• Lab space – 800 to 1,000 square feet

– Higher level of on-site processing

• Lodging (Construction) – NEON personnel and contractors

– Site survey and geotech work – Feb/Mar 2013

– Ground water wells – Feb/Mar 2015

• Lodging (Operations) – peak numbers up to 20

– Crews rotating from Fairbanks

– Full time and seasonal techs

• Garage space (Vehicles) – truck, boat and snow mobile

• Comm at Lake site – possible to tap into WIFI?

– Aquatic band width requirement (Lake Site) ~45Kb/s

Infrastructure Requirements

• Instrument maintenance: 2-3 days every other week year round

• Organismal sampling: – Terrestrial: 30-50 plots during summer season

– Aquatic: stream, lake, and STREON

– Observations: Sentinel taxa

– Sample removal – some soil, sediment, water, plant and animal materials

• Airborne Observations: once per year during peak greenness

Operations

Lab Equipment

• drying oven(s)• refrigerator• freezer• ultralow• high-precision balance• not so high precision balance• grinding mill• centrifugal mill • muffle furnace• fume hood• microscope? (may transport

samples back to Fairbanks)

• temporary sample storage• field equipment storage • flammables storage• corrosives storage• biohazard/hazardous waste

storage• gas cylinder storage ? maybe• dry ice readily available (may

need a machine to make this)• DI water readily available (may

need a DI water system)

The National Ecological Observatory Network is a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed under cooperative agreement by NEON Inc.