Senior representatives from NEON, Inc. and colleagues from the ecological community will present a detailed design update of the NSF-funded National Ecological Observatory Network at the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) joint meeting in San Jose, California, August 5-10, 2007.
Members of the media and freelance writers are invited to attend the NEON special session, What is NEON Becoming" on Monday, August 6, 2007, from 10 am-11:30 am, at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.
Dr. David Schimel (NEON CEO) will convene the session, provide a brief history of the project, and discuss the central NEON issues and approaches. Dr. Melinda Smith (Yale University) will make a presentation on NEON science and the role of experiments. Dr. Charlene D'Avanzo (Hampshire College) will address the integration of NEON science and education. In addition, Dr. James P. Collins, National Science Foundation Assistant Director, Directorate of Biological Sciences, will provide the NSF vision of NEON. The formal presentations will be followed by a question and answer session.
For more than a decade ecologists have wanted to create an observatory for understanding complex ecological processes at multiple scales-from biosphere dynamics to microorganisms in soil and water. Now they are preparing to build it.
The National Ecological Observatory Network is a continental-scale research platform for discovering and understanding how changes in climate, land use, and invasive species impact ecology. NEON will serve as a national laboratory to gather long-term data on ecological responses of the biosphere to changes in land use and climate, and on feedbacks with the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
NEON is the first initiative in the biological sciences to be supported through the National Science Foundation's Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction portfolio, which has prev
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Contact: Dan Johnson
djohnson@aibs.org
202-628-1500 x215
National Ecological Observatory Network
3-Aug-2007