National Investments in Environmental Observation Leveraging Federal Investments

At the request of NSF, the National Research Council (NRC)

established a scientific committee to assess the major national-

level knowledge gaps in the ecological and environmental

sciences (NRC 2001, 2003). It called for the creation NEON using

NSF’s Major Research and Equipment Facilities Construction

(MREFC) account.

The MREFC mechanism was established in 1995 with

Congressional approval to fund transformational research

infrastructure at the frontiers of science and engineering.

NEON is a NSF MREFC scientific infrastructure. The

Observatory provides free and openly available data and a variety

of other resources for use by the public. The Observatory’s goal

is to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of

climate change, land use change and invasive species on

continental-scale ecology by providing physical and information

infrastructure to support research, education and environmental

management.

NEON measures critical ecosystem processes at 60 locations

across the nation and scales those data to larger regions, and to

the continent, to enable ecological forecasting.

Challenges

Living systems are experiencing some of the greatest rates of change

caused by multiple changes in the environment, both human-driven and

natural. These changes affect ecosystems, air quality, water resources,

agriculture, and other goods and services. Natural, managed, and

socioeconomic systems are subjected to complex interacting stresses

that play out over extended periods of time and space (USGCRP 2013,

NRC 2007). Some of the most pressing challenges are highlighted

below:

The observation of such changes (impacts), and the processes

that cause those impacts (stressors), has to date been largely

accomplished through ad-hoc integration of data from existing

observation programs that were designed for other purposes.

This ad-hoc approach is not adequate for measuring stressors,

their impacts, and how they interact at large spatial scales over

decades. Scientific infrastructure to enable understanding of

continental-scale processes must be commensurate with the

scale of the phenomena.

Integrating Across National Environmental Observatories for the Benefit of Society

In light of the challenges facing agriculture over the next few decades,

USDA and NEON leaders have been exchanging information on strategies

for leveraging existing investments. Discussions have focused on the

establishment of partnerships and the sharing of techniques, protocols,

best practices, and physical infrastructure.

In late 2012, the USDA launched its Long-Term Agro-Ecosystem

Research (LTAR) network with an initial configuration of ten sites, three of

which are co-located with NEON. The objectives of the LTAR are to

enable the better understanding of:

· How key agricultural system components interact at larger scales (e.g.,

watershed; landscape);

· How to forecast the environmental effects of shifting agricultural

practices;

· How to improve the efficacy and information management of

conservation programs;

· How to identify the broader societal benefits of modern agriculture (e.g.,

bio-energy production; carbon sequestration; improved water quality &

water-use efficiency; wildlife habitat).

Spaceborne

Observatory

Airborne

Observatory

Terrestrial

Observatory

Observation Systems / Data Sources

Ocean Observatory

Social Observatory

Virtual Observatory

ApplicationsThe Interoperability “Fabric”

Data Source #1 Data Source #2 Data Source n….

Science Requirements

Measurements

Traceability

Data Products Algorithms

Informatics

Repurposed

Data and

Information

Education

Forecasting

Scientific

Visualization

Public

EngagementData Mining

Risk

Management

Decision SupportResource

Management

Vulnerability

Assessment

Understanding how these changes impact the ecosystems that support

human life requires a fully integrated, multi-scale systems to detect,

understand, and forecast changes. These changes affect all aspects of

society, depicted in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems

(GEOSS) conceptual architecture as Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs).

· Ecosystems and the biodiversity they

embody constitute “environmental

capital” on which society depends in

many ways.

· The degradation of environmental

capital result in impacts that include:

loss of agronomic capacity;

damaging floods arising from

deforested watersheds and heavier

precipitation events; increasing costs

of fresh water supply; disappearance

or diminution of economically

valuable freshwater and saltwater

fisheries; loss of biodiversity and

ecosystem resiliency (PCAST 2011).

· By 2050, agriculture will need to

supply enough food, feed, fiber, &

fuel to support a global population of

9 billion people. More than ¾ of the

70% increase in global food

production needed by 2050 will have

to come from the ‘sustainable

intensification’ of existing agricultural

lands (FAO 2011).

· This will result in new emergent

challenges on how best manage US

food security and safety, bioenergy,

and natural resources at a time of

limited support for public sector R&D

(NRC 2010).

NSF’s National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

NEON provides a national baseline for critical environmental

data. We anticipate NEON scientific data and information to be

re-purposable for operational needs, including resource

management and policy.

To leverage existing observation infrastructure

and to guide the development of emerging

infrastructure, NEON is developing an

interoperability framework – a “fabric” that is

used to stitch together partner observatories

so that data and information can be

seamlessly integrated across systems to

serve societal needs.

Elements of the framework include: well

documented and traceable requirements, well

documented and fully transparent algorithms

for models and data products, measurements

calibrated using traceable global standards,

and informatics.

NEON and NOAA have been exchanging ideas on approaches to

integrate terrestrial and coastal observations.

· In 2010, more than 39% of Americans live in coastal shoreline counties.

These counties represent less than 10% of the US Land area, but are

responsible for over half of the 2011 US GDP (State of the Coast,

NOAA).

· Multiple stressors are already being experienced by coastal and near-

shore ecosystems that will be exacerbated by climate change and ocean

acidification (PCAST 2011, Burkett and Davidson 2012).

The connectivity between terrestrial and near-coastal systems is poorly

understood and affect ecosystem services, transportation of nutrients,

biodiversity, and ecosystem resilience. These ultimately impact the

economic vitality of coastal communities.

© 2012 National Ecological Observatory Network, Inc. All rights reserved. The National Ecological Observatory Network is a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed under cooperative agreement by NEON, Inc. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under the

following grants: EF-1029808, EF-1138160, EF-1150319 and DBI-0752017. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Leveraging Environmental Observation Infrastructure for the Benefit of Society

Authors: Brian Wee1, Hank Loescher

1,2, Mark Walbridge

3

(1) NEON, Inc.; (2) Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder; (3) USDA ARS, Beltsville, MD

Research,

Education, and

Economics