Neon Addressing the Nation's Environmental Challenges (2004) / Chapter Skim
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3. Concept and Implementation of the National Ecological Observatory Network
3. Concept and Implementation of the National Ecological Observatory Network
Pages 47-66
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From page 47... ...
The answers are not simple; such an evaluation must be based on a comparison of sometimes divergent concepts proposed in the various workshops. In pursuing this task, the committee unavoidably came upon aspects of the National Ecological Observatory Network that it felt could be implemented in better ways.
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From page 48... ...
However, the currently envisioned approach requires that NSF request new MREFC funds from Congress without being able to show Congress how the funds would be used or what each NEON observatory would look like or do. That is inconsistent with the normal congressional approach to MREFC funding decisions; Congress expects detailed scientific justification of goals and plans and detailed descriptions of proposed MREFC facilities, including blueprints and cost estimates.
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From page 49... ...
The ideas and creativity of a large number of highly productive scientists should be incorporated into NEON design to ensure the scientists' dedication to NEON projects. A sufficiently detailed vision of NEON needs to be presented not only to fulfill MREFC funding criteria but also to ensure that research programs at NEON observatories would provide information from experimentation and observations that could aid local, regional, and national policy-makers, park and wildlife-preserve managers, Forest Service personnel, overseers of agricultural sectors, land-use planners, conservation biologists, water managers, and others in environmental decision-making.
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From page 50... ...
The six environmental challenges have already been suggested as issues that could be addressed in NEON observatories by NSF and AlBS (NSF 2002d, AlBS 2003) , and three of them have been recommended as priority research areas that deserve immediate investments (NRC 2001~.
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From page 51... ...
Research in each observatory and among observatories should be coordinated cooperatively to increase the effectiveness of the entire NEON program. It is impractical, if not impossible, to design meaningful nationwide experimental studies that explore the fuD range of interactions among all six environmental challenges, but one or more individual sites in a given NEON observatory could simultaneously address several grand challenges and their interactions.
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From page 52... ...
Matters that need to be addressed in a NEON plan include site selection, equipment acquisition, site management, core monitoring, data management and quality assurance, and specimen banking. NEON sites should be selected for their appropriateness for the research theme of the observatory and likely future observatories.
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From page 53... ...
The university consortium would provide administrative structure and a governing council that provides oversight and ensures that the NEON observatory serves the entire scientific community that is addressing its theme. A permanent coordinating body independent of NSF should be established to oversee the NEON network.
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From page 54... ...
EXAMPLES OF NEON OBSERVATORIES AND THEIR INTEGRATION On the basis of the six research themes, the committee outlines here some of the major infrastructure necessary to conduct large-scale research. The brief lists given below are by no means exhaustive or all-inclusive.
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From page 55... ...
Although biodiversity and composition monitoring may seem to be a daunting task that requires data collection at 1,000 sites or more, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, the US Department of Agriculture, the National Park Service, NSF, and various other national, state, and regional agencies already have programs in place. Detailed monitoring could be achieved once those efforts were coordinated and expanded.
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From page 56... ...
Sequencing facilities and microscopes for taxonomic and phyloA biodiversity observatory could collaborate or integrate with existing biodiversity programs to expand the scope and depth of biodiversity research. Examples include .
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From page 57... ...
. Nested arrays of eddy covariance towers across important environmental and stressor gradients to study atmosphere-biosphere interactions and net carbon storage with increased spatial intensity and to monitor and assess physiological capacity of plants.
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From page 58... ...
NADP data products include weekly and daily precipitation-chemistry data, annual and seasonal wet-deposition data, and mercury-deposition data. Climate Change The central missions of a climate change observatory would be to facilitate research on the effects of different scenarios of climate change on the nation's natural and managed ecosystems and research on how functioning and status of the nation's ecosystems might affect regional and global climate change by influencing greenhouse gases, albedo, evapotranspiration, and so on.
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From page 59... ...
. A nationwide network of experimental climate accelerators to determine the effects of likely scenarios of climate change on the composition, dynamics, stability, and productivity of major ecosystems.
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From page 60... ...
A program of the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service that conducts annual aerial and ground surveys to monitor the status of destructive insect and disease pests on Forest Service lands.
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From page 61... ...
. A major site serving as a central sequencing center, which could include an existing sequencing center and be equipped with molecular genetic instrumentation and such equipment as sequencers, cloning facilities, chip printers, and microarray readers.
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From page 62... ...
An interdepartmental council that helps to coordinate and ensure complementary, cost-efficient, and effective federal activities regarding invasive species.
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From page 63... ...
A national effort to foster development and distribution of regional landscape cover/chan~e data in the coastal zone through remote sensing technology. INTEGRATION OF NEON OBSERVATORIES Each of the six research themes outlined in Chapter 2 addresses a a major driver of environmental change.
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From page 64... ...
The six research themes share some common infrastructure needs. For example, studies of biodiversity, infectious diseases, and invasive species all require sequencing facilities, so that one central sequencing center could be established to serve ad observatories.
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From page 65... ...
Concept and Implementation of the National Ecological Observatory Network the NEON sites with overlapping themes would provide opportunities for scientists from various disciplines to work at the same location and generate synergies of effort. The sequential establishment of themebased national NEON observatories would facilitate network integration and cross-cutting research.
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