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) 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) 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.

Nitrate (NO₃^-) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration in stream water after clear-cutting of trees and subsequent strip-cutting of understory vegetation, dwarf bamboo (Sasa spp.) were investigated to understand the effect of these disturbances on biogeochemical processes in forested watershed in Teshio Experimental Forest, one of the JaLTER site, in northern Japan. Trees of 8 ha watershed except riparian zone were clear-cut in January?March of 2003.

A majority of the research on the MCM LTER occurs during the austral spring and summer (October-January), a period of continuous sunlight, when field support is readily available. Through additional logistical efforts, we were able to collect the first data on the MCM lakes during the transition from summer to winter (October-April). These data allowed us to examine ecosystem responses as photosynthetic input of new carbon stopped. Protein biosynthesis (leucine incorporation) increased in the east lobe of Lake Bonney during March and April (p<0.05).

Streams in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, flow during the short summer melt season (4-12 weeks) when air temperatures are close to the freezing point of water. Because of the extreme low precipitation rates, streams originate from glacial meltwater and flow to closed-basin lakes located on the valley floor. Water samples have been collected from the streams in the dry valleys since the start of the MCM LTER in 1993 and these have been analyzed for major ion and nutrient chemistry. The chemistry of the streams varies by location.

Land use change is one of the most important factors contributing to CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere, but also to the loss of biodiversity and alteration of hydrologic cycle in different biomes. In Central-Northern Mexico, the shortgrass steppe is highly threatened by different types of land use change including, overgrazing, agricultural development, and shrub encroachment. Recent assessments along the shortgrass steppe reported between 15 to 110 MT C ha^-1 y^-1, which summing the large extent of semiarid grasslands (~ 100,000 Km²).

Analysis of twenty-five years of forest floor sampling on Watershed 6 (W6) at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (Woodstock, NH, USA) shows no significant evidence of N accumulation in the forest floor (O horizon). The uncertainty in this estimate is high (2 ± 19 kg N ha^-1 y^-1) due to large spatial variation in forest floor mass, as well as interannual effects that can bias sampling depth. However, the C:N ratio of the forest floor has increased slightly (p = 0.05), which is unexpected under the “N saturation” hypothesis.

An experimental system for sampling trace gas fluxes through seasonal snowpack was deployed at a subalpine site near treeline at Niwot Ridge, Colorado. The sampling manifold was in place throughout the entire snow-covered season for continuous air sampling with minimal disturbance to the snowpack. A series of gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, ozone, volatile organic compounds) was determined in interstitial air withdrawn at eight heights in and above the snowpack at ~hourly intervals.

Ecosystems with little or no plant cover are often described as barren, however these systems can host diverse microbial communities. Yet, the biological functioning of these soils in high-altitude mountain ecosystems is poorly understood. We measured soil CO₂ fluxes and used molecular techniques to determine the composition of the bacterial and eukaryotic community at “barren” high-elevation sites in Colorado.