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NEON
Jiquan Chen, Univ of Toledo
Rationale
During the past several years, the scientific community has
worked to develop and advocate for NEON. During the past
several months, however, issues have been identified that have
helped clarify what must be addressed for NEON to move forward
successfully. Perhaps the overarching issue is that NEON must
continue its development along the lines of other large-scale
infrastructure projects. Because nothing quite like NEON has ever
been developed by biologists, it should be helpful to model the
NEON effort after large-scale projects in other disciplines. Much
of what follows builds upon discussion at the recent NEON
Coordination and Implementation Conference—which brought
together experts that manage large-scale infrastructure projects
and NEON stakeholders to discuss how to form, manage, and
govern NEON—and at a recent workshop on best-practices for
managing such large scientific facility projects.
Organizational chart
shows relationship
between steering
committee, task
forces, and staff. One
associate staff person
works with three
taskforces. Staff
director oversees
associates and works
directly with steering
committee, which
receives reports from
taskforces
Scientific Task Forces (STF)
•Biodiversity, species composition, and
ecosystem functioning
•Ecological aspects of biogeochemical cycles
•Ecological implications of climate change
•Ecology and evolution of infectious disease
•Invasive species
•Land use and habitat alteration
Future Meetings/Workshops of GLEON
Kellogg Biological Station (May 12-13, 2004)
U of Michigan Biological Station (October
2004)
U of Notre Dame Environmental Research
Center (Spring 2005)
Regional NEON Groups
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