Dr. Scott Goodrick, research meteorologist with the SRS Center for Disturbance Science, and Dr. Diane De Steven research wetland ecologist with the SRS Center for Bottomland Hardwood Research, were recently invited to serve a multi-year term on the Science and Education Coordination Committee for the Southeastern Domain of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON).
The Southeast NEON will focus on forest land use and urbanization as drivers of ecological change across the Southern Coastal Plain. The Domain Committee will advise NEON on science and education planning and on facilitating broad stakeholder participation. Drs. Goodrick and De Steven were nominated to the 15-member Committee for their respective expertise in atmospheric processes, forest resources, and wetlands of Coastal Plain environments from a federal science perspective. The newly formed Committee includes members from regional universities, federal agencies, and private science and conservation organizations.
Funded by the National Science Foundation, NEON is a developing continental-scale research platform for understanding and forecasting the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecological processes at broad scales. The platform consists of 20 regional Domains representing the ecological and climate diversity of the continental U. S. Observations of climate, soils, hydrology, and organisms will be collected from ground-based environmental sensor arrays, augmented with data from airborne sensor systems and geospatial analyses to allow for scaling and forecasting at broad scales. NEON’s educational mission is to make the information products widely available and to promote broad ecological literacy through partnerships with professional societies, public agencies, educational institutions, and community organizations. See www.neoninc.org for more information on the NEON program.