NATIONAL ECOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY NETWORK Dave Tazik & NEON Team Toolik Field Station Vision Workshop Portland, OR2-4 August 2012

A CONTINENTAL-SCALE OBSERVATION SYSTEM A Continental Observation System 30 year period of observation

… to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive species on continental-scale ecology …by providing infrastructure to support research, education and environmental management in these areas Causes of Change Climate Land Use Invasive Species Causes of Change Climate Land Use Invasive Species Response to Change Biodiversity Biogeochemistry Ecohydrology Infectious Disease Response to Change Biodiversity Biogeochemistry Ecohydrology Infectious Disease NEON Mission

An Integrated Observing System REMOTE SAMPLING ONSITE SAMPLING DATA PRODUCTS NAT. DATA SETS Individual Team Community Managers & Policy-- makers A User Facility and Community Asset A 30 year period of Observation

The NEON Questions

Where will NEON observe?

Observing Ecological Change Representative sampling Replication of gradients Detecting/attributing change over decades Standardized and transparent protocols Comprehensive set of observations Terrestrial and aquatic Sentinel taxa Field and lab analyses state-of-the-art QA/QC -- data quality and uncertainty Free and open access to all NEON data* * Unless legislatively protected

NEON Data Products ~ 1600 Level 0 data products (primary observations) o Raw voltages from sensors o Information on collected flora/fauna(e.g. counts) o External DNA or chemical analysis o Raw LiDAR returns ~ 540 Level 1 data (QA/C, minimally processed) o One-minute average air temperature o Site-level species composition o Georectified LiDAR ~ 75 Level 2 (rectified) & Level 3 (common gridded) o Gap-filled one-minute air temp (L2) o Gridded canopy nitrogen estimate (L3) ~ 120 Level 4 (high-level, cross-subsystem integrative) o Net ecosystem exchange o Canopy nitrogen o Microbial diversity o Aquatic nutrient flux

Terrestrial Organismal (TOS) Instrumental (TIS) Aquatic Organismal (AOS) Instrumental (AIS) Airborne (AOP) Research: Stream Ecological Observation Network (STREON) Towers Surface and ground water Satellite Data Airborne Remote Sensing NEON Observing Systems Field Sampling

TIS – Terrestrial Instrument System

Atmospheric Measurements Calibration for remotely sensing – Correct AOP for effects of incoming solar radiation, aerosols and water vapor Ecosystem carbon, water and energy balance Temperature Humidity Wind Precipitation Radiation CO 2 Pollutants – e.g., ozone and reactive nitrogen

TIS -- Soil Array Physical and carbon cycle responses Temperature Moisture Carbon dioxide flux (soil respiration) Root growth

Plant biodiversity Plant biomass, leaf area, and chemical composition Plant phenology Birds Ground beetles Mosquitoes Small mammals Infectious disease Soil microorganisms Soil biogeochemistry Terrestrial Observation System (TOS)

Terrestrial Biological Field Sampling

Algae Aquatic macrophytes, bryophytes and lichens Aquatic microbes Zooplankton Aquatic invertebrates Fish Aquatic habitat Sediment chemistry Water chemistry Aquatic Observation System (AOS)

Aquatic Instrument System (AIS) Aquatic –Temp water, DO, turbidity, pH, conductivity –Chromophoric dissolved organic matter –Chlorophyll –Discharge/water level –Nutrient Analyzer – nitrate, phosphate, ammonia –Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) Bank-side – Micrometeorology –Temp air, precipitation, barometric pressure, PAR, net radiation –Wind speed and direction –Camera Groundwater –Temperature, level and conductivity Sensor Design Testing

AOS/AIS – AQU/STREON

Experiment – STREON NEON control reach I I XOXO I I STREON treatment reach Instrument station, water sampling site Experimental units (baskets ) Basket incubation (e.g. streamside flume or in situ recirculation chamber) Nutrient addition station water flow Consumer exclosure (electrified barriers ) XEXE STREON – Stream Manipulation

Spectrometry Vegetation biochemistry & biophysical properties Cover type & fraction 3 X Twin Otter aircraft LiDAR altimetry Vegetation structure Sub-canopy topography Plant biomass High resolution photography Land use & land cover Airborne Observation Platform 2014: Toolik, Barrow, Caribou-Poker, & Healy

The NEON Imaging Spectrometer  Continuous wvl coverage from 380 to 2510 nm  High signal-to-noise ratio  (2x improvement over AVIRIS)  5 nm spectral sampling  1 mrad IFOV (1m 1000 m flight altitude)  High degree of uniformity across wvl‘s and field  SWIR coverage provides information on  canopy moisture & nitrogen  discrimination of non-photosynthetic components Status NISDVU delivered and operational NIS-1 due 4/13; NIS-2 due 8/13 Status NISDVU delivered and operational NIS-1 due 4/13; NIS-2 due 8/13

Lignin Leaf area index Nitrogen Canopy height Scaling Terrestrial Observations

3 Airborne remote sensing systems 10 Mobile Deployment Platforms Sensor Infrastructure Biological Measurements Cyber-infrastructure CAL/VAL Lab Collections NEON Assignable Assets

NEON – Generated Natural History Collections Voucher collections of sentinel taxa Analytical samples –Replicates for future re-analysis –For external PI-driven research needs –Storage in case of funding shortfalls Vascular plants and algae Animal tissues and genomic extracts Microbial communities Soils and sediments

NEON – ALASKA

Toolik Site CORE SITE AQUATIC / STREON AQUATIC

Construction mobilization & stagingFeb 2015 Civil infrastructure completeJul/Aug 2015 Field operations deploymentMay 2015 earliest Terrestrial instrumentation Sep 2016 Aquatic/STREON instrumentation Sep 2016 Major Milestones** **Tentative and subject to change

Tower: 2m x 2m x 6 m (L-W-H) Boardwalk: ≤ 1 m at ground level Instrument hut: ~20’ x 9’ x 8’ (L-W-H) –Instrumentation, equipment, tools, safety equip & non-haz gas cylinders Soil array: 5 arrays, ~ 25m apart Power Supply: generators – fuel storage at parking & staging area COMM: could be tied into the GCI fiber line Security: a gate at the top of the first flight of stairs Site Access: –Summer access: Boardwalk to instrument tower –Winter access: Access via snowmobile and snowshoes Site Remediation: –Site Decommissioning and Restoration Plan –Host-specific requirements Infrastructure

Lab space – 800 to 1,000 square feet –Higher level of on-site processing Lodging (Construction) – NEON personnel and contractors –Site survey and geotech work – Feb/Mar 2013 –Ground water wells – Feb/Mar 2015 Lodging (Operations) – peak numbers up to 20 –Crews rotating from Fairbanks –Full time and seasonal techs Garage space (Vehicles) – truck, boat and snow mobile Comm at Lake site – possible to tap into WIFI? –Aquatic band width requirement (Lake Site) ~45Kb/s Infrastructure Requirements

Instrument maintenance: 2-3 days every other week year round Organismal sampling: –Terrestrial: plots during summer season –Aquatic: stream, lake, and STREON –Observations: Sentinel taxa –Sample removal – some soil, sediment, water, plant and animal materials Airborne Observations: once per year during peak greenness Operations

Lab Equipment drying oven(s) refrigerator freezer ultralow high-precision balance not so high precision balance grinding mill centrifugal mill muffle furnace fume hood microscope? (may transport samples back to Fairbanks) temporary sample storage field equipment storage flammables storage corrosives storage biohazard/hazardous waste storage gas cylinder storage ? maybe dry ice readily available (may need a machine to make this) DI water readily available (may need a DI water system)

The National Ecological Observatory Network is a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed under cooperative agreement by NEON Inc.