For our latest Women in Ecology interview, we spoke with Laura Steger, Environmental and Zoological Collections Manager for the NEON Biorepository at Arizona State University. Steger spent her childhood in nature, influencing her to continue in that environment and work with NEON, spending her time surrounded by different specimens and samples from many different ecosystems.
This year, surveys are being conducted at field sites representing 10 NEON Domains, including the Northeast (D01), Southeast (D03), Great Lakes (D05), Prairie Peninsula (D06), Ozarks Complex (D08), Central Plains (D10), Southern Plains (D11), Southern Rockies/Colorado Plateau (D13), Pacific Southwest (D17), and Taiga (D19).
In the U.S. Carolinas, where the Piedmont Plateau meets the Coastal Plain, rolling hills and deciduous forests give way to the longleaf pine forests of the Sandhills. This area provides ample opportunity to explore diverse regional habitats and investigate changing ecosystems. Thanks to an internship program supported by the Carolina Wildlands Foundation, students from local colleges and universities have the opportunity to gain fieldwork experience using protocols adapted from the NEON Program.
Arvind Varsani is interested in virus diversity at many scales and across species. He collaborated with Laura Steger and Kelsey Yule at the NEON Biorepository at ASU, along with other researchers, to explore the potential of extracting viral DNA from archived rodent fecal and liver samples. Their work was published recently in Virology.
A recent study using data from NEON aquatic sites shows that across the continent, under the right conditions, freshwater lakes and streams may act as both sources of atmospheric N2O, and as sinks for the gas. This behavior may help to partially offset N2O emissions and is crucial to account for in climate modeling.
For our latest interview, we spoke with Janey Lienau, a first-year Ph.D. student at the Yale School of the Environment. Lienau’s work in the soil lab focuses on the interaction between animals, plants, and soil in forest ecosystems. Her soil studies during the pandemic were made possible by NEON open data. She shares how her unique upbringing shaped her career aspirations, how she came to love fieldwork and asking questions, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
Using isotopic data from NEON is one way that scientists can look into markers of ecosystem change and health. An R Package developed by Dr. Rich Fiorella calibrates atmospheric stable isotope data, enabling comparative analysis across NEON sites and the development of derived data products. The NEONiso R Package is available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) and GitHub and has been incorporated into the NEON data processing pipeline for the carbon isotope data product.
Permafrost degradation is an urgent concern for Arctic ecosystems and the global climate. A recent paper in Environmental Research Letters leverages artificial intelligence to develop better predictive models of permafrost degradation. The researchers utilized data from NEON’s terrestrial field sites in Alaska to train the model, along with data from the AmeriFlux network.
Over the last few years, our Women in Ecology series has spotlighted some of the women who work with the NEON program or are advancing ecology using NEON data. For Women’s History Month, we wanted to revisit some of the Women in Ecology we’ve featured in the blog series. If you missed these interviews the first time around, we invite you to get to know these amazing women and their work.
Every year, NEON hires around 230 seasonal field technicians across the Observatory in addition to its full-time field staff. These staff are tasked with collecting field observations and physical samples at NEON field sites. They receive on-the-job training, develop field science skills that can boost their careers, and get to live and work in some of the continent’s most pristine and beautiful places.
How long does it take for rainwater on land to find its way into streams and waterways? Researchers used stable water isotope data to trace the movement of water through watersheds at NEON field sites; in many cases, paired terrestrial and aquatic sites. The results are published in a recent paper in Hydrological Processes.
Maintaining a 30-year, continental-scale observatory takes a lot of planning. How do you ensure data consistency and continuity across such large scales of space and time, staying functional and effective even through climate and ecosystem change?
In this latest Women in Ecology interview, we spoke with Dr. Nayani Ilangakoon, a research scientist at the University of Colorado - Boulder (CU Boulder) who received her Ph.D. from Boise State University. Ilangakoon is focused on the impact of wildfires on ecosystems, and pairs her childhood experiences in nature with remote sensing data from NEON to conduct her research.
A recent $1.6M award from the NSF through the AccelNet Program will support efforts to harmonize international, drought-related ecological data across several networks in different countries. The three-year AccelNet grant was awarded in September 2023 to Battelle. This "network of networks" approach will enable researchers to study the drivers and impacts of drought on a global scale.
A recent paper in Environmental Research: Ecology explores the potential for using air- and spaceborne lidar to monitor biodiversity on a global scale. The study used NEON airborne laser scanning (ALS) data with NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) spaceborne lidar to validate a unique approach that uses "characteristic" forest structure to infer biodiversity for areas difficult to directly sample.
The availability of large, open data sets is changing the way ecologists conduct research and the way ecology is taught. Open data from the NEON program and other large ecology networks are a potential goldmine for undergraduate and graduate educators.
Fall arrives at different times and in different ways across the Observatory. Here's a glimpse at how autumn is unrolling across NEON field sites, viewed through phenocams at our field sites, and how 2023 looks compared to 2022.
The NEON Great Lakes User Group brings people together in the Great Lakes region to foster collaborative research opportunities. In September, the first in-person meeting of GLUG was held, a workshop supported through an NSF award.
NEON has weathered several unexpected events. Through it all, the Observatory team, managed by Battelle, has responded with ingenuity, resilience, and a positive spirit to ensure the safety of our people and maximize data continuity and availability.
A recent paper in Global Ecology and Biology, Habitat–trait interactions that control response to climate change: North American ground beetles, explores the connections between climate change, habitat types, and ground beetle traits. The study could help researchers model which ground beetle species may be at risk and the habitats needing protection to preserve them.
In July, the NEON Ambassadors convened a virtual workshop focusing on NEON derived data products. Participants are now working on a summary paper to outline best practices in creating, validating, and using derived data products. It's one more way the NEON Ambassadors are helping to make NEON data more usable and understandable for the wider research community.
We spoke with Dr. Phoebe Lehmann Zarnetske, an ecologist and associate professor at Michigan State University, about her path through academia, the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, and the challenges of maintaining a work-life balance. She also shares her thoughts on what it will take for scientific contributions to be more widely adopted for broader societal challenges.
Can water quality be forecast just like the weather? For Dr. Quinn Thomas, that is the ultimate goal. He and fellow researchers tested a model for forecasting lake temperatures at six NEON lake sites. Their results were recently published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Thomas is also the Principal Investigator for the EFI-RCN NEON Forecasting Challenge, which seeks to create a community of ecological forecasters using NEON data to test forecasting models.
2023 marks the 10th anniversary of operations for NEON's Airborne Observation Platform (AOP)! The effort that goes into making the flight schedules, calibrating the instrument payloads, making sure everything goes smoothly, and collecting high-quality data requires a dedicated team. The AOP team consists of many moving parts and a myriad of brilliant staff. Meet some more of the team here!
A unique and endangered ecosystem is nestled in the midst of the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Oak Ridge Barrens (The Barrens) is home to some of the few remaining pockets of natural prairie left in the state. Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning (TCWP) wanted to perform a scientific inventory of the species composition in the cedar barrens. Margaret Cumberland, ecologist at NEON's Appalachians and Cumberland Plateau Domain (D07), facilitated an AGU-TEX community project to make this happen.
The 2023 EFI Unconference, hosted by the Ecological Forecasting Initiative Research Coordination Network (EFI RCN) and supported by the National Science Foundation, brought together 45 passionate individuals at the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) headquarters in Boulder, Colorado on June 21-23, 2023. The group fostered a unique environment for participants to exchange knowledge, generate new approaches, and advance the field of ecological forecasting.
Dr. Katie Marshall shares the profound impact mentors have had on her, driving her to become a mentor herself. Her captivating career path and cutting-edge research projects serve as a testament to the remarkable achievements of women in the field, underscoring their contributions to ecological research and serving as an inspiration to future scientists. Notably, she highlights the pivotal role played by NEON in driving her research endeavors.
A recent paper in the Journal of Ecology explores correlations between tree species composition, fungal communities, and the relative abundance of different types of carbon in soil at seven NEON eastern forested field sites. Understanding these complex relationships could help researchers build better models of the carbon cycle in forested terrestrial ecosystems.
In our latest Women in Ecology interview, we hear from Clara Qin, a dedicated Ph.D. candidate from UCSC. Qin bridges the gap between ecological knowledge and practical application, and highlights the importance of embracing diverse perspectives and their significant impact on ecological research. Her personal experiences and background - including being a child of immigrants and active in the trans and queer community - have shaped her motivations, aspirations, and transformative moments.