The role of the National Ecological Observatory Network Hank Loescher National Ecological Observatory Network NEON Director Strategic Projects CEO Office lots and lots of data 92008 ID: 492654
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An observatory approach to enable ecological forecasting: The role of the National Ecological Observatory Network
Hank Loescher | National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)Director Strategic Projects | CEO OfficeSlide2
lots and lots of data…
9/2008
10/2009
2/2011
3/2010
7
/2011
2
7
/2014Slide3
Data as a National Resource
NSF Director Suresh’s emphasis on:“Era of Observations”
“Era of Data and Information
”
March 2012: White House $200M “Big Data” initiative:
NSF
NIH
DOE
DOD
DARPA
USGS
3Slide4
Increasing importance on designing new x-discipline data structures to support policy/decision-makingSocietal Benefit Areas (SBAs)
Grand Challenge for Environmental SciencesQuestions of societal importance within and among these SBAs
Understanding Earth System requires information integration
Broad Adoption and
Evolution
of
Cultures
Weather
Agriculture
Biodiversity
Climate
Disasters
Energy
Ecosystems
Water
Health
4
Global themes – Global SolutionsSlide5
OUTLINENEON Grand Challenges
Overview Design and Design Process of NEON
Ecological Forecasting
Interoperability and International Efforts
NEON Institutional Structure
5Slide6
Grand Challenge areas
Biodiversity
Biogeochemical cycles
Climate change
Ecohydrology
Infectious disease
Invasive species
Land
use
NRC (National Research Council). 2001. Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences. Washington DC: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2003. NEON: Addressing the Nation’s Environmental Challenges. Washington DC: National Academies Press.
6Slide7
Grand Challenge areasHow will ecosystems [of the United States] and their components respond to changes in natural- and human-induced
forcings such as climate, land use, and invasive species across a range of spatial and temporal scales? And, what is the pace and pattern of the responses?
How do the internal responses and feedbacks of biogeochemistry, biodiversity,
hydroecology
and biotic structure and function interact with changes in climate, land use, and invasive species? And, how do these feedbacks vary with ecological context and spatial and temporal scales?
7Slide8
Grand Challenge areas
The goal of NEON 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 to support research, education and environmental management in these areas.
Responses
Interactions
Feedbacks
Forcing
Abiotic
d
rivers
of ecological and biological
change.
Processes mediating the response of ecological systems, feedbacks influencing the drivers
Ecological and
organismal
responses
.
Biotic processes
8Slide9
Balancing Scientific Creativity with Baseline measurements
Hypotheses testing: ‘what can we do?’
Rationale for long term observations
Capabilities-based (network development)
Additional organizational complexity is often layered
Pro
Con
✔
Scientific creativity
✔
✕
Comfort-level for scientists and bottom-up approaches
✕
Complexity
becomes open-ended problem
✕
Governance is often difficult, and not extensible
✕
Difficult planning for Program Officers/Sponsors
✕
Problematic for long term sustainability
Scientist’s Approach to Project Science
9Slide10
NEON’s Scientific / System Engineering Approach
Environmental Science Questions(Hypothesis Based Questions)
Identify Needed Information
(What are the Data Products?)
Science Requirements
(Science Sub-System Requirements
)
Technical and Design Requirements
(e.g., for Engineering,
CyberInfrastructure
)
REQU
I
REMENT
S
I NFORMA T I ON
Grand Challenge Science Questions
Raw Data Collection
10Slide11
Balancing Scientific Creativity with Baseline measurements
Formalized hierarchical requirements
Asks ‘what must be done?’
Measurements are considered baseline
Steps are parsed out (see diagram)
Pro
Con
✔
New roles for scientists, both
internally and externally
✔
Clearly defines scope, budget, schedule,
risks
✔
Complexity is inherently planned
for
✔
Develops planning horizons for Program Officers/Sponsors
✔
Foster
s long term sustainability
✔
✕
Requirement
approach does not necessarily impose a single unique solution
Systems Engineering Approach
11Slide12
Scientist Roles
Capabilities based
(networks)
“What can we do?”
PI driven – grant structure
Strong scientific creativity
Deliverable ‘themes’
Discovery/experiments
Open ended
Requirements based
(
infrastructure)
What must be done?”
Community engagement
Mature baseline science
Well defined deliverables
Science sustainment
Manage costs/risk/scope
Examples
LTER +
iLTER
AmeriFlux
–
Fluxnet
BASIN
CZO
Carbo
-Europe
Examples
NSF Observatories
DOE ARM
NOAA US CRN
LHC at CERN
[
NASA] Satellites
12Slide13
NEON site design
13Slide14
NEON Domain themes
Agriculture
Climate
Forest systems
Invasion biology
Urban ecology
Aquatic
14Slide15
NEON Science Sub systems (alphabet soup)
FSU
Fundamental Sentinel Unit
Human
Obs.
Bioarchive
FIU
Fundamental Instrument Unit
Automated
Instrumentation
AOP
Airborne Observation Package
Aircraft Remote
Sensing
AQU
Aquatic/STREON
Human
Obs
/automated instrumentation
DPS
Data Products
Community-vetted
ensembled
DPs and Models
LUAP
Land Use Analysis Package
Satellite Remote Sensing
+
15Slide16
Fundamental Sentinel UnitBiodiversity
Population DynamicsProductivityPhenology
Infectious Disease
Biogeochemistry
Microbial Diversity and Function
Ecohydrology
**Sentinel Species**
16Slide17
Fundamental Sentinel UnitMicrobes
MosquitoesBeetles
Small Mammals
Birds
Fish
Aquatic Invertebrates
Plants
Generation Time
17Slide18
18
Generalized Terrestrial Sampling SchemeSlide19
Fundamental Instrument Unit
19Slide20
Instrumented measurements
Temperature
Moisture
Heath flux
Raditation
CO
2
Root growth and phenologySlide21
Fundamental Instrument Unit
Physical and chemical climate forcing
Ecosystem responses
Stand/plot level sampling
Automated instrumentation
Micrometeorological scalars and fluxes
Soil array
Over 2000 measurements per core site at frequencies of
Daily, and ~0.1 to 20 Hz
Total 50 Tb y-1
21Slide22
Airborne Observing Platform (AOP)
Three airborne remote sensing payloads:
Waveform-LiDAR altimeter
Imaging spectrometer
High-resolution digital camera
GPS-Inertial measurement unit
Leased Twin Otter aircraft
Instrumentation maintenance and calibration facility
Science and flight operations
22Slide23
Airborne Observing PlatformWaveform Light Detection and Ranging
+
High-fidelity Imaging Spectroscopy
What are we after
?
Detailed chemical, structural and taxonomic information on
ecosystems at
fine spatial resolution
Sampling at the scale of individual organisms (~<0.5m) over 400 sq. km around NEON sites
Bridge the scales from organisms (i.e., trees or shrubs) as captured by plot sampling, to stand scale observations as measured from flux towers, to the scale of satellite based remote sensing
23Slide24
Combined AIS / STREON Reach
Groundwater Well
Junction Box
Met Station
In-Stream Sensor Mount
PORTAL
Stream flow direction
S1
STR S2
S2
STR S1
STREON Baskets
STREON Baskets
Aquatic Reach
STREON Reach
Nutrient Addition System
2
nd
- Nutrient Addition System if reach is longer than 200m
PORTAL
24Slide25
Scaling Strategy
25Slide26
I would be remiss…..
Data Portal (http://data.neoninc.org) -
all data open and free
Large
suites of Data Products (
www.neoninc.org
/science/data
)
Education
and Outreach Program
State-of-the-Art
Calibration and Validation Lab
National and International Development
20 Field Labs across the US
Assignable Assets
Calibration and Validation Service
New data products
Additional Instrumentation
Mobile Instrument Platforms
Third Airborne Platform
etc
26Slide27
Ecological ObservatoryInformation infrastructure: Consistent, continental, long-term, multi-scaled data-sets and data products that serve as a context for research and education.
Physical Infrastructure: A research platform for investigator-initiated sensors, observations, and experiments providing physical infrastructure, cyberinfrastructure, human resources, and expertise, and program management and coordination.
The overarching goal of NEON is
to enable understanding and forecasting
of climate change, land use change, and invasive species on continental-scale ecology
by providing infrastructure
to support research in these areas.
27Slide28
Ecological ObservatoryCause and Effect Paradigm
Scale in Time and Space (from 20 Hz to 30 y, and from microbe to continent)Provide the data to enable an Ecological Forecasting
The overarching goal of NEON is
to enable understanding and forecasting
of climate change, land use change, and invasive species on continental-scale ecology
by providing infrastructure
to support research in these areas.
28Slide29
Ecological Forecasting
Aligned with establishing a baseline understanding now!! Casts the cause and effect paradigm of NEON into understanding present and future states of ecosystems:
What is the most likely future state of an ecological
system?
Provides an applied context of ‘what-if’ given a
decision made today?
Provides a conceptual framework
that can be applied to all elements in managing ecosystems: theory, exp design, experiments, implementation, infrastructure, data products
29Slide30
Ecological Forecasting30Slide31
How are ecological forecasting, experiments, and observations related?
The need for observations of the starting point (
now
)
The need for quantitative information about specific processes
--
particularly non-linear and stochastic processes
(
temperature sensitivity, susceptibility to drought, tipping points…)
Estimates of system state
Information on process parameters
Experiments/process studies to elucidate unknown processes and non-linear responses
Observations collected systematically over time and space to challenge iterative forecasts
A paradigm for ecological research?
31Slide32
32Science Developments
Data flows:Command, Control, Configuration
Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents
Automated QA/QC
Data product catalogs
Sponsored Workshops
Phenocam
Network: Envisioning the future of near-surface remote sensing
Isotope Ecology: Accelerating the integration of NEON data in isotope ecology research
Notable Meetings:
American Geophysical Union
Ecological Society of America
Entomological Society of AmericaBiodiversity Information Working Group
Soil Science Society
NEON, Inc.
UpdateSlide33
Aligning Science Questions and Hypotheses, Requirements, Mission StatementsTraceability of Measurements
Algorithms/Procedures
Informatics
Mapping Questions to ‘what must be done’
Defines Joint Science Scope / Knowledge Gaps
define interfaces among respective Infrastructures
What is the algorithm or procedural process to create a data product?
Provides “consistent and compatible” data
Managed through
intercomparisons
What are their relative uncertainties?
Use of Recognized Standards
Traceability to Recognized Standards, or First PrinciplesKnown and managed signal:noiseManaging QA/QC
Uncertainty budgets
Standards – Data / Metadata formatsPersistent Identifiers / Open-sourceDiscovery tools / Portals
Ontologies, semantics and controlled vocabularies
1.
2.
3.
4.
Interoperability FrameworkSlide34
Informatics -- Building Block ApproachData / Metadata formats
Discipline specific Data FormatsISO 19115 (29115) compliantEML
Persistent Identifiers
Time series /
sos
Attribution / Publications
Community Acceptance
Data Providence
Ontologies, Semantics and Controlled Vocabularies
Discipline Specifice.g., BCO, OWL, PCO etc
Data Policies
Community acceptance
Open-sourceData ManagementPlans and accountabilityArchival Policy
Data SovereigntyIntellectual
Property RightsIndividual / InstitutionalDiscovery tools / Portals
Ease of useInteroperable / HarmonizedSlide35
Emergent bottom-up Networks
EREN — Ecological Research as Education Network
Laurie Anderson
erenweb.org
/
FunDivEurope—Functional Significance of Forest Biodiversity in Europe (also Biodepth-Jena)
Michael Scherer-Lorenzen
www.fundiveurope.eu
GLEON — Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network
Kathleen Weathers
www.gleon.org
/
iLTER
— Long Term Ecological Network
Scott Collins
www.lternet.edu
/
Biosphere Atmosphere Stable Isotope Network
Todd Dawson
basin.yolasite.com
/
NPN
— USA-National Phenology Network
Elizabeth Wolkovich
www.usanpn.org
USDA National Soil Carbon Network
Chris
Swantson
www.fluxdata.org
/
nscn
/
SitePages
/Home
NTSG — Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group
Bill Smith
www.ntsg.umt.edu
/
NutNet — Nutrient Network
Eric Lind
www.nutnet.org
/
TraitNet — Trait Network (also BioMERGE)
Dan Bunker
traitnet.ecoinformatics.org
ZEN — Zostera Ecological Network
Pamela Reynolds
zenscience.org
/Slide36
NEON Focused
Interactions
European Union
(18 member countries in ICOS)
Italy
– Ecosystem Thematic Center
Finland – Governance and PM Germany
– Calibration and Validation Norway – intercomparison
European Union (COOPEUS) - LifewatchAustralia
– TERNFrance – EU ESFRI INRA ANAEE
Mexico and Canada – CarboNA + MexFluxKorea – KEON + KoFlux + AsiaFluxChina – CERNSlide37
R+RA CA
Abbreviated Institutional Structure – community engagement for research infrastructure
NEON Inc 501©3
Board of Directors
CEO
STEAC
National Science Foundation
Project Manager
Project Scientist
Observatory Director
MREFC CA
MREFC CA
R+RA CA
COMMISSIONING
TRANSITION
The NEON Observatory
Operations
Constrained activity
The NEON Project
Construction
Constrained activity
Assignable Assets
Airborne Platform
+ Instrumentation
MDP
Biol. Samples
/
Plots
Cal
/Val
Science Systems designed with limited community interface
Workshops
Working groups
Strategic Projects
Director
Scientific Community
Other Resources
NEON Inc
Development Activities
Open-ended activity
Examples
NEON Satellite Sites
Interoperability
New Experiments
New Infrastructure
International
Training Activities
COLLABORATIVE PROCESSSlide38
The National Ecological Observatory Network is a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed under cooperative agreement by NEON Inc.