The NEON Science Commissioning Plan: Strategies for Confirming System Operation

Abstract:

A transformation is underway in the field of ecological monitoring as compelling science questions motivate us to build ever-larger networks aiming to acquire uniform datasets over wide geographical ranges and long timescales. The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), currently under construction across the U.S., represents the most ambitious such effort to characterize ecology at the continental scale. When completed in 2017, NEON will begin a 30-year program to monitor the state of North American ecosystems at scores of independent sites by employing a combination of terrestrial and aquatic sensors, organismal, biogeochemical, and hydrological sampling conducted by field staff, and airborne remote-sensing imaging and spectroscopy. Simply building and bringing such complex, long-term monitoring networks online is, however, insufficient to produce a useful result: the science team must also confirm that the system fulfills its essential mission to generate accurate and uniform data from all sites over time. This is the role of Science Commissioning, the process which completes the construction stage by confirming that the system operates as designed before entering full operations. Ideally, Science Commissioning involves simply testing the completed system against all applicable science requirements. In the real world of large, complex networks, planners of Science Commissioning must grapple with several key questions: How can we verify that the measurements from a given subsystem reflect “truth”? How can we ensure that similar subsystems at different sites return equivalent results? How can we confirm that data from the same site remain comparable over long periods of time? How can we conduct meaningful tests on a large system in a reasonable amount of time and effort? We describe the specific strategies NEON is developing to meet these challenges and the implications for other large ecological monitoring networks.