3. Brandon McLaughlin – Aquatic Design Technician
Jenna Stewart – Science Technician – Training and Databases
Brandon Jensen – Associate Scientist - Permitting - Aquatic Ecologist
Charles Bohall – Instrumentation Engineer - Hydrologist
Jesse Vance – Instrumentation Engineer - Oceanographer
Michael Fitzgerald – Groundwater Hydrologist - Engineer
Keli Goodman - Aquatic Biogeochemist
Stephanie Parker – Aquatic Ecologist
Charlotte Roehm – Limnologist/Assistant Director
Ryan Utz – STREON Aquatic Ecologist
Aquatic STREON Team
4. Observing Ecological Change
• Representative sampling
• Standardized methods across domains
• Standardized and transparent protocols
• Continental in scope – distributed over 20
domains
• Detecting/attributing change over decades
• Comprehensive set of observations
• Field and lab analyses state-of-the-art
• QA/QC -- data quality and uncertainty
5. NEON’s Scientific/Systems 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)
R
E
Q
U
I
R
E
M
E
N
T
S
I
N
F
O
R
M
A
T
I
O
N
Grand Challenge Science Questions
Raw Data Collection
7. Aquatic Program at NEON
36 Aquatic Sites
25 Wadeable
Streams
3 Large Rivers
8 Lakes
10 STREON sites
*~2/3 of AQU sites
co-located with
terrestrial sites.
Aquatic Program at NEON
13. Chemistry
– Isotopes/Dissolved gases
– Surface water
– Groundwater
– Reaeration
– Sediment
Biology
– Riparian vegetation
– Invertebrates
– Aquatic Plants
– Algae
– Zooplankton
– Fish
– Microbes
Stream Discharge
Morphology
In-stream/In lake
– Pressure Transducers
– Multisonde: Twater, DO, Turbidity,
pH, Conductivity, fDOM
– Nutrient Analyzer (NO3-)
– PAR (streams only) and PARu (lakes only)
Near-Stream/buoy – Micrometeorology
– Tair, Precipitation, BP, PAR, Net Radiation
– Wind speed and direction
– Camera
Inlet/Outlet Lakes
– Level, PARu, Temperature
Groundwater
– Temperature, Level, Conductivity
Aquatic Measurements
Observational ComponentInstrumentation Component
14. Aquatic Microbial Measurements and
Associated Data Products
Protocol Analysis Analyte Data Product
Microbes (Water) Genetic/Pathogen
- Surface Water
16S/ITS rDNA Taxonomic diversity indices for microbes
qpcr Abundance of microbes
mRNA/functional assay mRNA sequence data functional composition
DNA (metagenome) DNA sequence data
Biomass (cell counts) Quantitative abundance of different groups of
microbes in surface water
Genetic/Pathogen
- Benthic Biofilm
16S/ITS rDNA Taxonomic diversity indices for microbes
qpcr Abundance of microbes
mRNA/functional assay mRNA sequence data functional composition
DNA (metagenome) DNA sequence data
Biomass (cell counts) Quantitative abundance of different groups of
microbes in benthic samples
Microbes (Water) DNA Extract Museum Services
18. 18ASLO Feb 20th 2013
Major AQU Tasks
SCI TEAMS, DPS, SYS ENG
THROUGHOUT
• CVAL: Calibration/Validation Group
• ENG: Engineering Team
• CI: Cyberinfrastructure
• IT: Information Technology
• ATBD: Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document
19. 19ASLO Feb 20th 2013
Key AQU Interfaces
Division Key Interfaces
ENG/SYS ENG Assembly level requirements Capture, C^3, V+V test
approaches, process
Permitting and Safety Safety, permitting, Soft Site Resolution
Science/Data Products Quality assurance; algorithm revision / development;
support data product development; publications and
community engagement
Calibration/Validation Design Traceability and Uncertainty approaches and
processes; analyze results
Cyber-Infrastructure Algorithm Development and Data Management tools
Education & Outreach Provide scientific and technical support as needed
20. • Standardized sensor sets and
sampling methods to use at all
sites
• Standardized temporal sampling
strategy to use at all sites
• Continuous monitoring (sensors),
consistent terminology
• Quantifying uncertainty, data
quality standards, metadata
standards
• Consistent QA/QC, verification,
NIST traceable calibrations
Blacktail Deer Creek, WY
Challenges
21. Science
Validation
What is Science Commissioning?
Essential Function of
Project Science Office
Crucial Coordination with
Systems Engineering
Steve Berukoff
23. What is Science Commissioning?
• Science Commissioning & Validation (SCV)
– Ensure that a system that functions at an engineering level (SYE-accepted) moves to
a system that meets the scientific requirements for
• Robustness
• Sensitivity
• Uncertainty
as quantitatively traceable to higher-level science questions.
– Answers the question: “Does NEON’s as-built implementation satisfy its scientific
goals?”
– Test
• every measurement & data product against scientific design
• within systems engineering framework
• under schedule/budget/external deadlines
Steve Berukoff
24.
25. PARTNERSHIP CLIMATE
CZ.1.07/2.4.00/31.0056
1. Science Requirements/Questions
2. Traceability of Measurements
3. Data Product Algorithms
4. Enviro-Informatics (e-infrastructures)
Extensibility - Science Scope
Spatial and Temporal Inference
Emergent Community Practices
Uncertainty budgets
Community Best Practices
“consistent and compatible”
Joint data assimilation intercomparison
Uncertainty budgets
Use of Recognized Standards
Intercomparisons
Uncertainty budgets
Standards - Data Formats
Standards - Metadata formats
Spatial and temporal reference tags
**Controlled vocabularies
Interoperability– Information Infrastructure
PARTNERSHIP CLIMATE
CZ.1.07/2.4.00/31.0056
Editor's Notes
How can NEON observe ecological change while keeping in mind the continental scope? What are some important goals for NEON?