Project Office News: November 2004
Request for Community Input
We seek your timely input to the NEON design, in advance of our first meeting (January 4-6, 2005). As you know, NEON will be designed to address continental and regional scale questions pertaining to many environmental grand challenges as they relate to: (1) biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; (2) biogeochemical cycling; (3)climate change; (4) hydroecology; (5) infectious disease; (6) invasive species; (7) land use; and (8) other emerging issues. A series of questions will guide the design of the continental scale research platform that comprises NEON, leading to a distributed infrastructure network that allows us to transform ecology and begin to forecast biosphere phenomena. In addition to science, NEON will provide unique educational opportunities for K-12 and higher education students, as well as the general public.
We need you — the very best scientists, educators and engineers — to assist in the design process.
Posted by jgoldman on Wednesday November 24, at 3PM
NEON Design Consortium Members Selected
A distinguished body of scientists, engineers, and educators has been assembled to serve on the committees that will guide the science, education, and infrastructure plans for the National Ecological Observatory Network. The NEON Design Consortium committees will formally begin their work with meetings in January, March, and June of 2005. Their reports will identify which continental-scale science questions NEON will address, what kinds of sensor technology and cyberinfrastructure will be required, and how to maximize NEON's potential for educating students from K-12 to post-graduate levels. A full roster of NEON committee members is available in People.
Posted by djohnson on Wednesday November 24, at 3PM
NEON Workshop Reports Available Online
The American Institute of Biological Sciences held a series of six workshops from March - September 2004 that focused on the scientific objectives of the proposed National Ecological Observatory Network. Five reports generated by the NEON workshops are now available online. (The sixth report on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning will be posted shortly.)
NEON Science Workshop Series reports
Each NEON summer workshop focused on a broad ecological theme or challenge of national importance:
- Invasive species
- Ecological aspects of biogeochemical cycles
- Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
- Ecological implications of climate change
- Land use and habitat alteration
- Ecology and evolution of infectious disease
For each workshop, experts from the prospective NEON community were asked to identify the key scientific questions that could best be addressed by a distributed and integrated ecological research facility, such as NEON. Attendees also suggested the kind of infrastructure that would be needed to meet the essential technological and scientific requirements of the research questions they identified. The recommendations of the six workshops are helping to shape the ultimate design and implementation of the National Ecological Observatory Network.
Posted by djohnson on Friday November 19, at 8AM