NEON Program

Seeking nominations to join a NEON Technical Working Group! Applications are due October 11. NEON relies upon input from more than 20 Technical Working Groups (TWGs), which play an important role by providing input to NEON’s data collection and processing methods and help ensure that NEON infrastructure, data, and programs are a valuable community resource. Find the nomination form at the link!

Happy #WorldRiversDay! Did you know that NEON has 3 river sites, all found in the southeast U.S.? The Tombigbee River (TOMB) and Black Warrior River (BLWA) can be found in Alabama in Domain 08 and the Flint River (FLNT) is found in Georgia as part of Domain 03. NEON rivers are navigable by boat and have buoys similar to the NEON lake sites. Here are some quick facts about these sites: TOMB (pictures 1-3): This field site is in the Lower Tombigbee River, south of the confluence with the Black Warrior River and north of the Mobile River Basin, a biodiversity hotspot. TOMB is home to NEON's only coastal-style buoy, designed to withstand high flows during flood season. BLWA (pictures 4-5): This river, located in the Southeastern Coastal Plain, hosts a series of locks and dams that reduce the flow and create lentic environments in the river. The river is located in Alabama's "Blackbelt" which was originally named for nutrient-rich, dark soil. FLNT: The FLNT field site is found within the Jones Center at Ichauway in the Piedmont Lowlands of Georgia. The Flint River runs through areas of karst topography which significantly impacts the movement of groundwater in the area. Check out all NEON field sites: https://buff.ly/3fgVqOo 📸: Nicole Conner & Breeann Ortega-Roberts

BONA field site appreciation post! 🌲 🦟 As the core terrestrial site in Domain 19, field staff in Alaska get to spend lots of time at BONA. The site is a rich mosaic of habitats, including dry birch forests teeming with grouse and lowbush cranberries, black spruce bogs enrobed in plush carpets of sphagnum moss, and thick tangles of young aspen revegetating old burns. The site is located within the Bonanza Creek LTER, an area managed for scientific study by the University of Alaska, and is the ancestral homeland of the Tanana Dene people. Wolves, beavers, ermine, porcupines, grizzlies, and red-backed voles are just some of the creatures that call BONA home. Trailside snacks include cloudberries, blueberries, and bog cranberries...from outside the NEON plots of course! While you may not be able to plan an impromptu trip to Alaska this fall, using data collected from our BONA site could be the next best thing. Explore this field site here: https://buff.ly/2KK7wAq #NEONscience #naturallyinspiring #fieldscience #interioralaska #neondata #alaskalife #universityofalaska

Seeking nominations to join a NEON Technical Working Group! Applications are due October 11. NEON relies upon input from more than 20 Technical Working Groups (TWGs), which play an important role by providing input to NEON’s data collection and processing methods and help ensure that NEON infrastructure, data, and programs are a valuable community resource. Find the nomination form at the link!

Join us on October 8 for another NEON Science Seminar! Ben Weinstein of the University of Florida will discuss "Harnessing NEON to enable the future of forest remote sensing." Register here: https://buff.ly/3B5qvPI. Check out the full schedule of the seminar series on the NEON website, and register ahead for any of the events! https://buff.ly/3CFLaZq

It's another TFT appreciation post! In Domain 11 (Southern Plains, Texas) we’ve got some awesome Botany Buds, Justin Rattan and Hanna Wright! These seasonal technicians have been with us for the last two years, and we’re grateful to get to know them and for their hard work and dedication to the NEON project. Their love for botany doesn’t just stop with NEON; the first and last pictures were taken while working with a local plant rescue in the DFW area. Go team! It's always great to see proud ecologists. Other NEON staff pictured: Abby Rankin, Canaan Sutton, Eric Becker . . . #BotanyBuds #PlantSavior #Texas #Oklahoma #HornedLizard #ThankfulForTFTs #seasonalwork #fieldwork #fieldscience #career #cooljob #ecology #ecoscience #learnmore #skills #naturelover #earlycareer

We've been hard at work in Utah this summer! You might think MOAB in Domain 13 is all sunny, hot, dry days, but that's not always the case. Sometimes it gets a little chilly and rainy! Lead Field Technician Fiona used all her resources to stay dry on this wet day while sampling Plant Diversity. Fiona's perseverance paid off and that data (along with MOAB's precipitation data) will be available for everyone to use on the NEON Data Poral (buff.ly/3mDmZRp ). Thank you Fiona and thank you to all of our seasonal technicians! #FieldFriday #Moab #neonscience #essentialraingear

Join us TOMORROW, Sep 10 at 12pm Mountain time for a NEON Science Seminar! Speakers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Kansas State University will discuss "Advancing ecological sciences via participatory science: A river-focused use case." Register here: https://buff.ly/4cCCmSD Check out the full schedule of the seminar series on the NEON website, and register ahead for any of the events! https://buff.ly/3CFLaZq

It’s a biogeochemistry year at Domain 03’s Georgia site, The Jones Center at Ichauway (JERC). That means a lot of sampling is happening right now that only happens every 5 years per site, such as the Plant Belowground Biomass protocol. Here we see a field technician getting ready to core some roots. Samples are collected to 30 cm, then washed and sorted into 3 root diameter size categories. They are then dried and weighed in the lab. Collecting this data lets us know how much belowground plant biomass there is, as well as how much of that biomass is produced and decomposed within a given year. Roots are important because they help our understanding of how terrestrial ecosystems respond to environmental changes.

While completing field sampling at NEON's farthest north site (BARR), Field Ecologists and TFTs in Domain 18 had the opportunity to facilitate an activity at the BARC Science and Culture Fair! The Science Fair is an event facilitated by the NSF, Battelle, and UIC Science in Utqiaġvik, Alaska with the goal of sharing the science happening on Iñupiaq lands with the local community. At our activity, we had the privilege of showing a few kids the world through a microscope for their very first time. They learned to identify key features of the beetles and plant species in their own backyards, and then "built" their own! The Arctic tundra is an extremely special environment that NEON is honored to monitor for years to come. #BARCScienceAndCultureFair