Research team receives $6 million
The National Science Foundation and United States Congress awarded $6 million to a research team led in part by professor Jim MacMahon of the Utah State University biology department.
The research team is comprised of more than 200 people from across the nation and is called the National Ecological Observatory Network, also known as NEON.
“NEON will serve as an integrated research tool that will be used by a large number of biological, physical and social scientists and engineers to achieve a better understanding of our nation’s ecosystems,” MacMahon said.
The grant will benefit other individuals outside of the research team with information gathered by NEON, MacMahon said.
“Everyone will benefit from NEON,” said MacMahon. “Kindergarten through post-graduate students and teachers will use the information that NEON finds. They will also be able to use the research facilities. NEON will have a profoundly positive impact on the community and the next generation.”
The National Research Council (NRC) has identified several large challenges in the environmental sciences. MacMahon said the council believes that understanding these challenges is central to providing the environmental knowledge needed by the next generation to manage the Earth in a sustainable manner.
It has been recommended by the NRC that these challenges receive investment by funding agencies and others, he said, and require a national to continental-scale research platform. NEON will be studying these challenges. There are examples of ecological research issues that could be addressed with NEON.
According to the National Science Foundation’s Web site, www.neoninc.org., one of the issues that may be considered is biodiversity. NEON may study whether a reduction in the number of species or in the genetic diversity within species at local, regional or continental scales will impact US ecosystems.
Another challenge is to further understanding of the Earth’s major biogeochemical cycles.
“We need to determine how human activities impact them, and determine how they might better be stabilized,” MacMahon said. “What happens in the Great Lakes Region can affect Mississippi’s coastal zone, and nitrogen-enriched air from the Midwest is depositing nitrogen on soils in Maine.”
“NEON would like to better understand ecological and evolutionary aspects of infectious diseases,” MacMahon said.
According to the NEON Web site, “The challenge is to develop an understanding of the interactions among pathogens, hosts and receptors, and the environment; and thus make it possible to prevent changes in the infectivity of organisms that threaten plant, animal, and human health at the population level.”
Another challenge is to understand invasive species, MacMahon said.
“Things like weeds have dramatically altered the structure and function of ecosystems worldwide,” he said.
Other areas of possible study include land use, hydroecology and climate change. NEON is a huge project, MacMahon said.
“It takes in so many components that it’s difficult to take it all in. It’s also different than anything that’s been done before,” MacMahon said.
It’s now recognized that a more complete understanding or ecological systems is possible, MacMahon said.
“In order to do this, methods of research must change. We must think outside the box,” MacMahon said. “We are charged with transforming the way science is done. It’s not just bigger, but transformational. It’s not just multidisciplinary, it’s interdisciplinary.”
“Research sites will be set up across the nation to study some of these questions,” said MacMahon. “All sites will be set up simultaneously so they can effectively intercommunicate.”
Many research projects start with one site, and then expand as more funding is available, said MacMahon. This is less effective because the sites that open later don’t have as much information to offer, they may be behind the other sites. By opening all the sites at the same time, all sites are on the same page, MacMahon said.
NEON will be composed of a number of networked regional observatories, MacMahon said. Each observatory will be composed of a core site and linked to satellite sites. The observatories will be distributed across the United States in different eco-regions, and all the observatories will be linked to one anther.
“It will be a network of networks for local to continental scale field biology research,” MacMahon said.
Each observatory will have a core site that will give the site breadth and depth for its research, according to the NEON Mission Statement.
According to the National Science Foundation’s Web site about the NEON mission “The core site could be a biological field station, a US Forest Service Experimental Watershed, a National Park or a US Nature Conservancy preserve. This list is not exhaustive, but is merely suggestive of the range of possibilities for a core site.”
The research community will obtain access to use NEON through the submission of research proposals, according to the NEON mission statement. These proposals will then be evaluated and funded through NSF. This creates an open access policy that allows a wide array of scientists with the most creative ideas to participate.
For the next two years, NEON will continue on in the planning and design phase.
By 2006, NEON will incorporate and become a limited liability corporation. Once in place, NEON will receive millions of dollars from NSF to operate.
It is expected that NEON will last for 15 to 30 years, and between $500 million and $1 billion could be invested, MacMahon said.
“This could change science,” MacMahon said.
-apassey@cc.usu.edu