The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) will be an NSF-sponsored research facility for the study of long-term, large-scale ecological change. NEON’s science mission is to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive species on continental-scale ecology by providing infrastructure and information to support research in these areas.

 The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) focuses on grand challenge questions in environmental science relevant to large regions that cannot be addressed with traditional ecological approaches. NEON will provide both physical and data infrastructures in order to provide usable information to scientists, teachers, students, citizens, governmental and non-governmental decision makers.

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a national-scale research platform for assessing the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecosystem structure and function.

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) education mission is to enable society and the scientific community to use ecological information and forecasts to understand and effectively address critical ecological questions and issues.

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a national-scale research platform for assessing the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecosystem structure and function. NEON partitions the United States into 20 ecoclimate domains. Each domain hosts fully instrumented aquatic sites in permanent (wildland area) and relocatable sites (36 sites in current definition). Relocatable sites aims to capture ecologically significant contrasts within and between domains.

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), being funded by the National Science Foundation, is a continental-scale research platform for discovering, understanding and forecasting the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecology. Local site-based flux tower and field measurements will be coordinated with high resolution, regional airborne remote sensing observations. The Land Use Analysis Package (LUAP) provides a linkage to scaling to continental scale by providing access to satellite data sets.

 The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a national-scale research platform for analyzing and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecology. NEON features sensor networks and experiments, linked by advanced cyberinfrastructure to record and archive ecological data for at least 30 years. Using standardized protocols and an open data policy, NEON will gather essential data for developing the scientific understanding and theory required to manage ecological challenges.

 Land use, invasive species, and climate change are all the results of human modifications of our planet. Humans directly and indirectly force ecosystem changes and we also respond to ecosystem modifications. The human effects on ecosystems can be seen primarily through modifications in land cover and land use. While remote sensing systems can monitor land cover, most human land use (e.g. fertilizer use, grazing intensity, irrigation rate) information require other types of data. NEON requires land use data on the local and continental scale.