NN Press Releases

NEON Completes Selection of Candidate Sites

2008-04-29T15:18:26Z

Science staff from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) have confirmed all 20 locations of Candidate Core Sites selected for the planned continental-scale ecological research platform.

The sites were chosen because they best represent the ecoclimatic characteristics of their respective domains. Selections were based on quantitative criteria developed by NEON, Inc. and colleagues with the US Forest Service and the US Geological Survey. Sixteen candidate sites are located in the US Lower 48; Alaska hosts two, and Hawaii and Puerto Rico have one site each.

"Each candidate site is designed to act as a detector in a national observatory, sensing a portion of the domain, much as a single detector in a digital camera detects information from a portion of the scene being photographed, while the whole megapixel array creates an image," said NEON CEO David Schimel.

Candidate site locations are now confirmed in three domains where decisions were pending--the Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, and Southern Plains. In the Mid-Atlantic, NEON staff selected the Smithsonian Institution Conservation Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia. For the Great Lakes domain, the choice was the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center/Trout Lake Biological Station in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin. In the Southern Plains, staff chose the Caddo and LBJ National Grasslands, Texas.

"We conducted a rigorous process to recommend candidate sites for the three remaining domains," said Dr. Michael Keller, NEON Chief of Science. "Our decision making was guided by a single set of requirements." Each candidate site was required to:

Be located in a wildland area representative of the vegetation, soils, landforms, climate, and ecosystems performance of its domain;
provide access to gradient and relocatable sites that respond to regional and continental-scale science questions;
meet the logistical and administrative criteria of year-round access, available permitting, and secure land tenure for 30 years; and
meet the technical criteria of unimpeded air space for regular air survey and potential for an experimental set-aside.

Beyond the required criteria, a second group of desirable considerations focused on logistical, administrative, and technical factors. These included site security, facilities for power and communications, knowledge of local land use history, and appropriate locations for micrometeorological flux and aquatic measurements, among other desirable features.

Next Step: Site Assessments

In 2007, four teams of ecological experts made initial visits to seven NEON Candidate Core Sites; now, detailed site assessments are under way. Thorough site evaluations in all 20 domains will enable NEON staff to refine the scientific, technical, logistical, and financial planning documents needed for upcoming NEON reviews.

The first round of site assessments began in late March with visits to two domains: Southeast, based at the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station in Gainesville, Florida, and Atlantic Neotropical, located at the Guanica Forest, Puerto Rico.

NEON is collaborating with the United States Geological Survey in the evaluation process, using USGS vegetation maps for the entire United States to establish a preliminary design for every candidate site. The maps are being shared with representatives at each location prior to the site visit.

"We have preliminary activities, mapping activities, and the actual visits," said Dr. Keller. "We will test the design during the actual visit, when we probe scientific and logistical matters on the ground. We will look at tower placements, vegetation plots, potential hazards, and limits to accessibility. We will also focus in detail on all of the Fundamental Sentinel Unit (FSU) activities." [The NEON FSU will measure soil and aquatic biogeochemistry in each domain, and track patterns and changes in a variety of organisms, including birds, fish, plants, small mammals, and microbes.]

Another important consideration for project staff and the NEON, Inc. Board of Directors is to make certain that Observatory activities have the least possible impact on the landscape during the estimated 30-year lifespan of the project. The objective is to monitor the environment, not to impact it.

"Good environmental stewardship goes hand in hand with good science," said Dr. Keller. "We want to be observing site characteristics, not site disturbance."

NEON has scheduled the next round of visits to five candidate sites in April and May, 2008. The itinerary includes a variety of US ecoclimatic domains: The Ozarks Complex, anchored in the Talladega National Forest, Alabama; Appalachians/Cumberland Plateau, located in the Walker Branch Watershed, Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Prairie Peninsula, at the Konza Prairie Biological Station, Manhattan, Kansas; Desert Southwest, anchored at the Santa Rita Experimental Range, Arizona; and the Pacific Northwest, at the Wind River Experimental Forest, Washington.

NEON is a continental-scale ecological observation platform for understanding and forecasting the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecology. The Observatory will support a range of long-term ecological research activities and enhance the capacity of scientists to forecast future states of ecological systems affected by the changing environment.

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Note to Reporters: Contact Dan Johnson at 202/628-1500 x215 (or by cell: 703/615-7626) to arrange a telephone interview with NEON CEO David Schimel. For more about NEON, visit: www.neoninc.org

New U.S. Ecological Observatory Garners Founding Member Institutions

2007-09-26T17:46:06Z

The deadline for application extends to November 1, 2007 More than 20 US universities and scientific organizations interested in promoting the goals of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) have become Founding Members of the organization. “The most immediate activity of these members will be to help us choose additional members for our Board of Directors,” said NEON Board Chair Dr. James A. MacMahon. “Nearly half of all Board members will be elected from the representatives of membership institutions. This expansion of the Board will occur before December,” he said. Founding Members will be recognized throughout the operational life of NEON as supporters of an observational network designed to transform the way ecological research is conducted in the United States. The application deadline for Founding Memberships is November 1, 2007. Who Has Joined NEON? In the East and South: The Ecological Society of America, Harvard University (Harvard Forest), the Science and Engineering Alliance, University of Alabama, University of Florida, University of Maryland—Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (Institutional Member), University of New Hampshire, University of South Carolina, and Williams College. In the Midwest: Kansas State University, University of Kansas (Biodiversity Institute), University of Michigan, University of Notre Dame (Environmental Research Center), and the University of Oklahoma. In the West: University of Arizona (Institute for the Study of Planet Earth), University of California—Los Angeles, University of California—Riverside, University of Colorado at Boulder (INSTARR—Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research), University of Utah, University of Washington, and Utah State University (Ecology Center). To learn more about the benefits of NEON Founding and Institutional Membership and to download an application form, visit www.neoninc.org. NEON at a Glance The National Ecological Observatory Network is a research platform for discovering and understanding ecological change at the continental scale. NEON will deploy a network of standardized instruments and cyberinfrastructure to gather data on ecological responses of the biosphere to changes in climate, land use, and invasive species, and on feedbacks with the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Observatory data will advance ecological forecasting, improve natural resource management, and provide early warning of biological hazards. NEON will support the first continental-scale comparisons of research transects focused on some of the nation’s most pressing ecological challenges—including forest management, invasive species, infectious disease, and the effects of urban and exurban development. NEON is the first initiative in the biological sciences supported through the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction portfolio, which has previously funded large telescope arrays, particle accelerators, and research vessels. The Observatory will promote frontier environmental science and education for at least 30 years.

National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Featured at ESA/SER Joint International Conference

2007-08-03T18:42:27Z

Senior representatives from NEON, Inc. and colleagues from the ecological community will present a detailed design update of the NSF-funded National Ecological Observatory Network at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) joint meeting in San Jose, California, August 5-10, 2007. Members of the media and freelance writers are invited to attend the NEON special session, “What is NEON Becoming?” on Monday, August 6, 2007, from 10 am-11:30 am, at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Dr. David Schimel (NEON CEO) will convene the session, provide a brief history of the project, and discuss the central NEON issues and approaches. Dr. Melinda Smith (Yale University) will make a presentation on NEON science and the role of experiments. Dr. Charlene D’Avanzo (Hampshire College) will address the integration of NEON science and education. In addition, Dr. James P. Collins, National Science Foundation Assistant Director, Directorate of Biological Sciences, will provide the NSF vision of NEON. The formal presentations will be followed by a question and answer session. For more than a decade ecologists have wanted to create an observatory for understanding complex ecological processes at multiple scales—from biosphere dynamics to microorganisms in soil and water. Now they are preparing to build it. The National Ecological Observatory Network is a continental-scale research platform for discovering and understanding how changes in climate, land use, and invasive species impact ecology. NEON will serve as a national laboratory to gather long-term data on ecological responses of the biosphere to changes in land use and climate, and on feedbacks with the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. NEON is the first initiative in the biological sciences to be supported through the National Science Foundation’s Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction portfolio, which has previously funded large telescope arrays, particle accelerators, and research vessels. It is designed to gather data for at least 30 years and to serve as a US terrestrial contribution to the proposed Global Earth Observation System of Systems. NEON will support the first continental-scale comparisons of research transects focused on some of the nation’s most pressing ecological challenges, including: the effects of urban and exurban development; forest management; invasive species and infectious diseases; nitrogen deposition; continental-scale climate change; agriculture and biofuels; ecohydrology; and climate change effects through the water cycle (rain or snow, permafrost, runoff). The focus of NEON complements the theme of the ESA/SER joint meeting, “Ecological Restoration in a Changing World.” Society depends on ecosystems in the same way it depends on weather, water resources, and agriculture. We currently have little understanding of the effects of these large-scale changes on the ecosystems that supply services and underpin the quality of life of the human community. NEON data will improve ecological forecasting to optimize resource management and provide early warning of biological natural hazards. In addition to the presentations at the ESA/SER special session, leading NEON scientists will host a Graduate Student and Post Doc Bagels Roundtable on Tuesday, August 7, 2007, from 7:00 am - 8:00 am. Conference attendees may also learn more about the Observatory, including core site locations, by visiting the ESA/SER NEON Exhibit (Booth 602). Candidates interested in applying for the full-time position of NEON Staff Scientist may sign up at the NEON booth for an interview during the conference. For the latest news and project documents, see [www.neoninc.org.](www.neoninc.org)

ESA Hosts Webcast and Survey on the Scientific and Educational Uses of NEON

2007-03-22T21:25:23Z

Ecological Society of America (ESA) hosted a Webcast on the educational and scientific uses of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) on March 21, 2007 at the American Society of Association Executives in Washington, DC. Panelists at the event were: ESA Executive Director Katherine McCarter, NSF Assistant Director (Directorate of Biological Sciences) James P. Collins, NEON CEO David Schimel, and ESA Education Director Jason Taylor. The ESA online survey of NEON science and education revealed strong community interest in the availability of data generated by the National Ecological Observatory Network. Among the results: * Prior to participating in the survey, 91 percent of the respondents had heard of NEON and 58 percent had engaged in NEON discussions at ESA, LTER, NEON meetings, or with colleagues. * A majority of respondents (72 percent) anticipated using data from the NEON network, and 76 percent said they would use data from environmental gradients. * More than 80 percent thought that open access policies will have a positive effect on student or post-doc use of NEON data. Incentives to respondents conducting research at NEON sites include: collaboration opportunities, data accessibility and integrity, affordable housing, funding, on-site staff, facility and equipment access, and how well NEON sites and data will integrate with existing research. Barriers to conducting research at NEON sites include: the cost of accessing a site and its facilities and equipment; lack of relevancy of NEON site locations and data streams to a researcher's interests; distance of a NEON site from a researcher's home institution; site overcrowding, overuse, or abundance; and data quality and data ownership issues. NEON CEO David Schimel responded to questions on NEON science, data policy, site selection, and other issues. For a recording of the Webcast-including audio, video, and slide presentations-visit www.neoninc.org.

Core Sites Selected for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

2007-02-28T22:24:36Z

NEON, Inc. has announced the initial group of 20 candidate core sites across the United States that will be included in the NEON Project Execution Plan. A technical review committee of NEON senior staff and colleagues from the ecological research community participated in the selection process in Boulder, Colorado, 11-16 February 2007. The Observatory will gather long-term data on ecological responses of the biosphere to changes in land use and climate, and on feedbacks with the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. The NEON observing strategy is based on a systematic sampling across the largest scales of ecological variability in order to "scale up" analyses across the nation. The core wildland sites form the stable, fixed elements of Observatory design. NEON partitions the United States into 20 eco-climatic domains using a statistical analysis of eco-climatic variables and wind vectors. Each domain hosts one fully instrumented NEON core site, as well as a variety of relocatable instrument systems. Relocatable tower systems will expand measurements of environmental variability along elevation, precipitation, or land-use gradients. Rapid deployment systems (instruments on vehicles or towed by vehicles) will be used to study sudden events on the landscape, such as wildfires, natural catastrophes, or the emergence of an invasive species or disease outbreak. Site decisions of the NEON technical review committee were informed by detailed responses of the ecological community to a Request for Information, and by a formal RFI evaluation panel convened by the National Science Foundation at the US Geological Survey's EROS (Earth Resources Observation and Science) Data Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, during the week of 5 February 2007. Preliminary site visits are now underway that will enable NEON to further evaluate the scientific and logistical issues associated with the 20 proposed locations. For further details about NEON science gradients and research themes, and a USGS map showing core site locations, visit www.neoninc.org.

NEON Selects Mathematician As Project Manager

2007-02-17T22:23:51Z

Minnesota native Karin A. Remington has been named Project Manager for the National Ecological Observatory Network. Her initiation into the NEON planning effort was immediate. "My first day on the job was at the Boulder site selection meeting in February, 2007, and it was a terrific introduction to the design process and the level of engagement with the scientists who will be both supporting and using NEON," said Remington, who brings experience in large-scale scientific data collection and analysis to NEON, as well as an interest in microbial ecology. "I'm really excited by the scope of this project, and the extent of community involvement." Dr. Remington earned her Masters and Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Kentucky before receiving a two-year appointment as Householder Fellow in Scientific Computing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She then joined the Mathematical Software Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, before moving to the Informatics Research group at Celera Genomics. Following the sequencing of the drosophila, human, mouse, and mosquito genomes, Dr. Remington joined Craig Venter at his then fledging Venter Institute in 2002, where she built a team of computational scientists and software engineers working in genome assembly, environmental genomics, and comparative genomics. Her work there ranged from a detailed comparative analysis of the dog, mouse, and human genome sequences to the comprehensive analysis of environmental samples from the Sargasso Sea.

Two New Members Welcomed to the Board of NEON, Inc.

2006-12-05T22:22:56Z

Dr. Jerry M. Melillo and Dr. John Aber have been elected to the NEON, Inc. Board of Directors and will participate in the Board's next meeting, 22-23 February 2007, in Washington, DC. Dr. Melillo is Senior Scientist and Co-Director of The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory, at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His research interests include a focus on the broad-scale influences of global change on terrestrial ecosystems, especially on how human activities impact the biogeochemistry of those ecosystems. His extensive research activities include soil-warming experiments in Sweden and at the Harvard Forest in western Massachusetts. Dr. Melillo has served as Associate Director for Environment at the Office of Science and Technology Policy and as President of the Ecological Society of America. Dr. John D. Aber, a forest ecosystems specialist, is a Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space at the University of New Hampshire. He is also Chair of the UNH inter-college Natural Resources Ph.D. Program. Dr. Aber holds a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering and Applied Science (Computer Science), and a Master's and Ph.D. in Forestry and Environmental Studies, all from Yale University. Part of his forest research work helps to create computer models of ecosystem function that are linked to geographic information systems and useful in exploring the impacts of climate change. For a complete listing of NEON, Inc. Board Members, visit www.neoninc.org.

Meet the First CEO of NEON

2006-11-15T22:22:06Z

Dr. David Schimel, Senior Scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), has been named Chief Executive Officer of NEON. Since 1992, Dr. Schimel has served as a terrestrial scientist in NCAR's Climate and Global Dynamics Division, a member of Colorado State University's Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, and as a Founding Director of the Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany. "It was an honor to be asked," said Schimel. "NEON is a critical step towards forecasting how ecosystems and organisms interact with changes in climate and land use, and the impact of these changes on people and their enterprises. And personally, the amazing NEON technology is like an irresistible big, shiny science toy." Dr. Schimel's scientific interests and research activities coincide with the broad spatial scale of NEON design. They include biogeochemistry, the global carbon cycle and carbon cycle processes, climate impacts on ecosystems, scaling ecological theory to the landscape and larger regions, and disturbance (cultivation and fire) effects on ecosystem processes. In recent years, Schimel has served on the NRC Ecosystem Panel, Committee on Global Change Research, Earth Science and Applications from Space Decadal Survey, Committee on Geophysical and Environmental Data, the NOAA Carbon Cycle Advisory Committee, the World Climate Research Program's Modeling Panel, and the NSF Geosciences Directorate Advisory Committee. "NEON is a natural evolution for me, given my career-long focus on quantifying ecological processes over landscapes and larger scales, and I am very aware of what NEON will mean to our field and the next generation of ecologists. Our community has created a compelling plan that I am excited to help execute. I'm looking forward to working to integrate (and expand) the NEON team and the broad community to make this happen," said Schimel.

NEON Passes a Milestone: the Conceptual Design Review

2006-11-12T22:21:14Z

Leaders of NEON, Inc. and the NEON Project Office presented detailed reports of Observatory planning progress to an NSF Conceptual Design Review Panel at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, UC San Diego, La Jolla, California, 6-9 November 2006. The presentations described NEON research objectives, science questions, continental-scale design, and infrastructure deployment. Functional requirements (including systems components, cyberinfrastructure interfaces, and performance requirements), the budget and management plan, and NEON education were included in the review. The National Science Foundation has asked the Panel to assess a host of documents produced by the NEON Project Office, including the Preliminary Project Execution Plan, Project Development Plan, and Cost Book. NEON CEO Dr. David Schimel and Board Chair Dr. James A. MacMahon led a plenary session at which design experts presented the review panel with an overview of activities related to NEON science, engineering, and management. A series of breakout sessions were held to provide the panelists with additional details. The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental-scale research platform for discovering and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasives on ecology. It is the first research initiative in the biological sciences to be considered for funding through the NSF Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) fund, a portfolio that has supported construction of telescope arrays and the commissioning of ocean research vessels. More than 20 scientists from a variety of disciplines served on the Conceptual Design Review Panel, which was chaired by Dr. Gary Sanders, Project Manager of the Thirty Meter Telescope. NEON presentations were made at the Calit2 Synthesis Center on the UC San Diego campus, a venue that provided state-of-the-art visuals of the project's cyberinfrastructure, sensors, and instrumentation.

An Invitation to Participate in NEON Design

2006-10-27T21:20:25Z

On 1 November 2006, the NEON Project Office will host a town meeting and live Webcast devoted to the NEON Request for Information (RFI) at the American Society of Association Executives conference center in Washington, DC, from 1pm-4pm EDT. NEON, Inc. Board Chair Dr. James A. MacMahon and Project Office Administrative Director Dr. Brian Wee will discuss the RFI requirements and respond to questions. The entire session will be recorded and available for playback To join this event in person or online, please visit www.neoninc.org for registration details. The goal of the Request for Information is to obtain feedback from the environmental science community to further refine the design and specifications of the National Ecological Observatory Network. Respondents to the RFI have an opportunity to identify: * National and multi-regional scale scientific questions that require NEON observational and cyberinfrastructure resources, * questions that may also require continental-scale manipulative experiments, * the locations of core wildland sites and experiments, and * a continental-scale research gradient. Electronic responses to the RFI are due at the NEON Project Office by January 5, 2007. An NSF-selected scientific and technical committee will review the responses on their scientific merit, logistical issues, and other factors. NEON, Inc. will then consider the recommendations and use them to develop a final integrated, site-specific plan for deploying NEON infrastructure.

NEON Delivers Project Documents to NSF

2006-10-25T21:19:11Z

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) staff, in consultation with colleagues in the ecological research community, has prepared five major project documents for delivery to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in advance of the Conceptual Design Review of NEON by an NSF panel the week of 6 November 2006. The documents included are: * The Integrated Science and Education Plan (ISEP), which sets forth the NEON vision, * the Networking and Informatics Baseline Design (NIBD), which describes the cyberinfrastructure that will support and enable NEON, * the Preliminary Project Execution Plan (PPEP), a document that links the NEON Conceptual Design with methods for deploying integrated instruments, experiments, facilities, and cyberinfrastructure, * the Project Development Plan (PDP), the roadmap that defines the scope of work and the strategy that will take NEON into its Construction Phase, and * the Cost Book. NEON is a continental-scale research platform for discovering and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasives on ecology. It will consist of distributed sensor networks and experiments, linked by advanced cyberinfrastructure to record ecological data and make it available to researchers, decision-makers, and students and teachers. NEON will serve as a sentinel system for environmental change and as the US terrestrial component of the proposed Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). It is the first initiative in the biological sciences that is eligible for funding through the NSF Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) fund.

NEON Exhibits at Student Technical Conference

2006-10-12T21:18:03Z

Staffers from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) attended the 16th Annual Science and Engineering Alliance Student Technical Conference, 4-7 October 2006, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Dan Johnson (NEON Public Information Representative) and Cheryl Solomon (Science Associate) met students, representatives of Federal agencies, and engineering/technical faculty from attending universities at the NEON exhibit. Elizabeth Blood, NSF Program Director for NEON, briefed SEA attendees at several sessions on October 6. The Science and Engineering Alliance, Inc. (SEA) was founded in 1990 as a nonprofit consortia. The SEA serves four state-supported Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Alabama A&M University, Jackson State University, Southern University and A&M College, and Prairie View A&M University) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It focuses on ensuring a supply of quality minority scientists to meet the development and research needs of the public and private sectors. The National Ecological Observatory Network is a continental-scale research platform designed to gather long-term data relevant to a range of major US environmental challenges. The Observatory will focus on the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasives on ecology. NEON will develop an open data policy and make its ecological data available to researchers and educational users in near-real time via user-friendly portals. Through a variety of education initiatives, NEON will translate scientific data into meaningful information that citizens can understand and use. NEON education will also support the professional development opportunities that scientists and educators need to become effective researchers and teachers. These efforts include broadening participation in the sciences, an emphasizing undergraduate access to NEON resources, and creating educational and training opportunities for a variety of geographically underserved populations.

Ecological Society of America Features Two NEON Sessions

2006-08-11T20:06:12Z

Leaders of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) briefed colleagues in the ecological science community on NEON design and education developments at the 91st annual meeting of the Ecological Society of American in Memphis, Tennessee, 6-11 August 2006. NEON is a continental-scale research platform designed to gather a variety of long-term ecological data for discovering and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasives on ecology. The project, consisting of distributed sensor networks and experiments, is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and currently moving from its design phase to deployment and operations. In a session titled "NEON at the Starting Line," Dr. James A. MacMahon, Board Chair of NEON, Inc., noted that the two NEON documents of greatest interest to the scientific community (developed through three workshops of more than 150 scientists) have undergone merit review by NSF. MacMahon reported that the NEON Networking and Informatics and Baseline Design (NIBD) was favorably reviewed and accepted by the Foundation. The Integrated Science and Education Plan (ISEP) received suggested changes from two NSF review panels in aspects of NEON governance, the deployment of equipment, and experiments. "The NEON, Inc. Board has convened a new committee to make final revisions of the ISEP, and that process is well underway," said MacMahon. Dr. James P. Collins, NSF Assistant Director (Directorate of Biological Science), and Dr. Elizabeth Blood, NSF Program Director for NEON, joined MacMahon to present their perspectives on NEON and to discuss next steps for the project, which includes the release of a Request for Information to the NEON community. In a second session on NEON education, Dr. Laurel Anderson (Ohio Wesleyan University) and Dr. Kerry Woods (Bennington College) engaged a group of scientists from undergraduate institutions in a discussion focused on how ecologists from colleges with diverse missions and resources can interact with NEON and participate in defining the Observatory's future.