The document discusses the urgent challenges posed by environmental changes on ecosystems, agriculture, and society, highlighting the need for effective environmental observation infrastructure. It emphasizes the role of NEON (National Ecological Observatory Network) in providing critical data for understanding and forecasting ecological impacts, particularly regarding climate change and land use. Additionally, it outlines partnerships between NEON and USDA to enhance research capabilities and address agricultural sustainability in the face of a growing global population.

1. Leveraging Environmental Observation Infrastructure for the Benefit of Society
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Authors: Brian Wee , Hank Loescher , Mark Walbridge
(1) NEON, Inc.; (2) Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder; (3) USDA ARS, Beltsville, MD
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:
· 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).
National Investments in Environmental Observation
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.
Leveraging Federal Investments
At the request of NSF, the National Research Council (NRC)
established a scientific committee to assess the major nationallevel 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.
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.
The MREFC mechanism was established in 1995 with
Congressional approval to fund transformational research
infrastructure at the frontiers of science and engineering.
Research,
Education, and
Economics
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);
NSF’s National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
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.
· 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).
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.
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).
· 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).
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.
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).
· Multiple stressors are already being experienced by coastal and nearshore 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.
Integrating Across National Environmental Observatories for the Benefit of Society
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.
Observation Systems / Data Sources
Spaceborne
Observatory
Airborne
Observatory
Social Observatory
The Interoperability “Fabric”
Applications
Scientific
Visualization
Education
Science Requirements
Forecasting
Terrestrial
Observatory
Data Products Algorithms
Ocean Observatory
Virtual Observatory
Measurements
Traceability
Data Source #1
Data Source #2
….
Data Source n
Informatics
Repurposed
Data and
Information
Public
Engagement
Data Mining
Risk
Management
Resource
Management
Decision Support
Vulnerability
Assessment
© 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.