Open AccessThe plant diversity sampling design for The National Ecological Observatory Network
Author(s) -
Barnett David T.,
Adler Peter B.,
Chemel Benjamin R.,
Duffy Paul A.,
Enquist Brian J.,
Grace James B.,
Harrison Susan,
Peet Robert K.,
Schimel David S.,
Stohlgren Thomas J.,
Vellend Mark
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ecosphere
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.255
H-Index - 57
ISSN - 2150-8925
DOI - 10.1002/ecs2.2603
Subject(s) - ecology , environmental resource management , climate change , diversity (politics) , plant community , geography , range (aeronautics) , environmental science , biology , species richness , engineering , anthropology , sociology , aerospace engineering
The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is designed to facilitate an understanding of the impact of environmental change on ecological systems. Observations of plant diversity—responsive to changes in climate, disturbance, and land use, and ecologically linked to soil, biogeochemistry, and organisms—result in NEON data products that cross a range of organizational levels. Collections include samples of plant tissue to enable investigations of genetics, plot‐based observations of incidence and cover of native and non‐native species, observations of plant functional traits, archived vouchers of plants, and remote sensing airborne observations. Spatially integrating many ecological observations allows a description of the relationship of plant diversity to climate, land use, organisms, and substrates. Repeating the observations over decades and across the United States will iteratively improve our understanding of those relationships and allow for the testing of system‐level hypotheses as well as the development of predictions of future conditions.