NEON begins to monitor changing ecology of the U.S. - Science Nation

The National Ecological Observatory (NEON) is a large-facility project managed by NEON, Inc., and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NEON is a continental-scale research platform for discovering and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change and invasive species on ecological systems. NEON will gather long-term data on the biosphere's response to changes in land use and climate, as well as its interactions with the geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. Data will be collected by automated sensors, an airplane and field crews in 20 NEON regions, or 'domains,' over 30 years-time. Scientists and the public everywhere can access the data online. The Mid-Atlantic domain comprises the core site in Front Royal, Virginia, at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's 3,200-acre campus, along with two additional sites located at Blandy Experimental Farm near White Post, Virginia, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland. Research in this episode was supported by NSF grant #1246537, NEON Initial Operations. NSF Grant URL: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1246537&HistoricalAwards=false Miles O'Brien, Science Nation Correspondent Marsha Walton, Science Nation Producer