Upload
karen-charles
View
217
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
AN OBSERVATORY APPROACH TO ENABLE ECOLOGICAL FORECASTING:
THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL ECOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY NETWORK
Hank Loescher | National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
Director Strategic Projects | CEO Office
lots and lots of data…
9/2008
10/2009
2/2011
3/2010 7/2011
2
7/2014
Data as a National Resource
NSF Director Suresh’s emphasis on:
• “Era of Observations”
• “Era of Data and Information”
March 2012: White House $200M “Big Data” initiative:
• NSF
• NIH
• DOE
• DOD
• DARPA
• USGS
3
Increasing importance on designing new x-discipline data structures to support policy/decision-making
Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs)
Grand Challenge for Environmental Sciences
Questions of societal importance within and among these SBAs
Understanding Earth System requires information integration
Broad Adoption and Evolution of Cultures
WeatherAgriculture Biodiversity Climate Disasters EnergyEcosystems WaterHealth
4
Global themes – Global Solutions
OUTLINE
NEON Grand Challenges
Overview Design and Design Process of NEON
Ecological Forecasting
Interoperability and International Efforts
NEON Institutional Structure
5
Grand Challenge areas
1. Biodiversity
2. Biogeochemical cycles
3. Climate change
4. Ecohydrology
5. Infectious disease
6. Invasive species
7. Land use
NRC (National Research Council). 2001. Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences. Washington DC: National Academies Press.
NRC. 2003. NEON: Addressing the Nation’s Environmental Challenges. Washington DC: National Academies Press.
6
Grand Challenge areas
How will ecosystems [of the United States] and their components respond to changes in natural- and human-induced forcings such as climate, land use, and invasive species across a range of spatial and temporal scales? And, what is the pace and pattern of the responses?
How do the internal responses and feedbacks of biogeochemistry, biodiversity, hydroecology and biotic structure and function interact with changes in climate, land use, and invasive species? And, how do these feedbacks vary with ecological context and spatial and temporal scales?
7
Grand Challenge areas
The goal of NEON is to enable understanding and forecasting of the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive
species on continental-scale ecology by providing infrastructure to support research, education and environmental management in
these areas.
Responses
InteractionsFeedbacksForcing
Abiotic drivers of ecological and
biological change.
Processes mediating the response of ecological systems, feedbacks
influencing the drivers
Ecological and organismal responses.
Biotic processes
8
Balancing Scientific Creativity with Baseline measurements
• Hypotheses testing: ‘what can we do?’
• Rationale for long term observations
• Capabilities-based (network development)
• Additional organizational complexity is often layered
ProCon
✔ Scientific creativity
✔ ✕ Comfort-level for scientists and bottom-up approaches
✕ Complexity becomes open-ended problem
✕ Governance is often difficult, and not extensible
✕ Difficult planning for Program Officers/Sponsors
✕ Problematic for long term sustainability
Questions
Grant
Exp Design
Construction
Data Collection
Analyses
Publications
Move on to the next thing
Scientist’s Approach to Project Science
9
NEON’s Scientific / System Engineering Approach
Environmental Science Questions(Hypothesis Based Questions)
Identify Needed Information(What are the Data Products?)
Science Requirements(Science Sub-System Requirements)
Technical and Design Requirements (e.g., for Engineering, CyberInfrastructure)
REQUIREMENTS
I NFORMA T I ON
Grand Challenge Science Questions
Raw Data Collection
10
Balancing Scientific Creativity with Baseline measurements
Questions (scientists)
Grant (scientists)
Exp Design (scientists)
Construction (Engineering,
Permitting)
Data Collection (Engineering
Analyses (scientists)
Publications (scientists)
• Formalized hierarchical requirements
• Asks ‘what must be done?’
• Measurements are considered baseline
• Steps are parsed out (see diagram)
ProCon
✔New roles for scientists, both internally and externally
✔Clearly defines scope, budget, schedule, risks
✔Complexity is inherently planned for
✔Develops planning horizons for Program Officers/Sponsors
✔ Fosters long term sustainability
✔ ✕Requirement approach does not necessarily impose a single unique solution
Systems Engineering Approach
11
Scientist RolesCapabilities based
(networks)• “What can we do?”• PI driven – grant
structure• Strong scientific creativity• Deliverable ‘themes’• Discovery/experiments• Open ended
Requirements based (infrastructure)
• What must be done?”• Community engagement• Mature baseline science• Well defined deliverables• Science sustainment• Manage costs/risk/scope
Examples• LTER + iLTER• AmeriFlux – Fluxnet• BASIN• CZO• Carbo-Europe
Examples• NSF Observatories• DOE ARM• NOAA US CRN• LHC at CERN• [NASA] Satellites
12
NEON site design
13
NEON Domain themes
Agriculture Climate Forest systems
Invasion biology Urban ecology Aquatic
14
NEON Science Sub systems (alphabet soup)
FSU Fundamental Sentinel Unit Human Obs. Bioarchive
FIU Fundamental Instrument Unit Automated Instrumentation
AOP Airborne Observation Package
Aircraft Remote Sensing
AQU Aquatic/STREONHuman Obs/automated
instrumentation
DPS Data Products Community-vetted ensembled DPs and
Models
LUAP Land Use Analysis Package Satellite Remote Sensing +
15
Fundamental Sentinel Unit
• Biodiversity• Population Dynamics• Productivity• Phenology• Infectious Disease• Biogeochemistry• Microbial Diversity and Function• Ecohydrology
• **Sentinel Species**
16
Fundamental Sentinel Unit
Microbes
Mosquitoes
Beetles
Small Mammals
Birds
Fish
Aquatic Invertebrates
Plants
Generation Time
17
18
Generalized Terrestrial Sampling Scheme
Fundamental Instrument Unit
19
Instrumented measurements
• Temperature
• Moisture
• Heath flux
• Raditation
• CO2
• Root growth and phenology
Fundamental Instrument Unit
• Physical and chemical climate forcing
• Ecosystem responses • Stand/plot level sampling• Automated instrumentation• Micrometeorological scalars
and fluxes• Soil array• Over 2000 measurements per
core site at frequencies of • Daily, and ~0.1 to 20 Hz• Total 50 Tb y-1
21
Airborne Observing Platform (AOP)
Three airborne remote sensing payloads:– Waveform-LiDAR
altimeter– Imaging spectrometer– High-resolution digital
camera– GPS-Inertial
measurement unit Leased Twin Otter aircraft Instrumentation
maintenance and calibration facility
Science and flight operations
22
Airborne Observing PlatformWaveform Light Detection and Ranging
+High-fidelity Imaging Spectroscopy
What are we after?• Detailed chemical, structural and
taxonomic information on ecosystems at fine spatial resolution
• Sampling at the scale of individual organisms (~<0.5m) over 400 sq. km around NEON sites
• Bridge the scales from organisms (i.e., trees or shrubs) as captured by plot sampling, to stand scale observations as measured from flux towers, to the scale of satellite based remote sensing
23
Combined AIS / STREON Reach
Groundwater Well
Junction Box
Met Station
In-Stream Sensor Mount
PORTAL
Stream flow directionS1 STR S2S2 STR S1
STREON
Baskets
STREON
Baskets
Aquatic Reach STREON Reach
Nutrient Addition System
2nd - Nutrient Addition System if reach is longer
than 200m
PORTAL
24
Scaling Strategy
25
I would be remiss…..
Data Portal (http://data.neoninc.org) - all data open and free
Large suites of Data Products (www.neoninc.org/science/data) Education and Outreach Program State-of-the-Art Calibration and Validation Lab National and International Development 20 Field Labs across the US
Assignable Assets Calibration and Validation Service New data products Additional Instrumentation Mobile Instrument Platforms Third Airborne Platform etc
26
Ecological Observatory
• Information infrastructure: Consistent, continental, long-term, multi-scaled data-sets and data products that serve as a context for research and education.
• Physical Infrastructure: A research platform for investigator-initiated sensors, observations, and experiments providing physical infrastructure, cyberinfrastructure, human resources, and expertise, and program management and coordination.
The overarching goal of NEON is to enable understanding and forecasting of climate change, land
use change, and invasive species on continental-scale ecology by providing infrastructure to support research
in these areas.
27
Ecological Observatory
• Cause and Effect Paradigm
• Scale in Time and Space – (from 20 Hz to 30 y, and from microbe to continent)
• Provide the data to enable an Ecological Forecasting
The overarching goal of NEON is to enable understanding and forecasting of climate change, land
use change, and invasive species on continental-scale ecology by providing infrastructure to support research
in these areas.
28
Ecological Forecasting
Aligned with establishing a baseline understanding now!!
Casts the cause and effect paradigm of NEON into understanding present and future states of ecosystems:
What is the most likely future state of an ecological system?
Provides an applied context of ‘what-if’ given a decision made today?
Provides a conceptual framework that can be applied to all elements in managing ecosystems: theory, exp design, experiments, implementation, infrastructure, data products
29
Ecological Forecasting
30
How are ecological forecasting, experiments, and observations related?
The need for observations of the starting point (now)The need for quantitative information about specific processes
-- particularly non-linear and stochastic processes (temperature sensitivity, susceptibility to drought, tipping points…)
• Estimates of system state• Information on process parameters• Experiments/process studies to elucidate unknown
processes and non-linear responses• Observations collected systematically over time and space to
challenge iterative forecasts A paradigm for ecological research?31
32
Science Developments• Data flows:
− Command, Control, Configuration
− Algorithm Theoretical Basis Documents
− Automated QA/QC
− Data product catalogs
• Sponsored Workshops− Phenocam Network: Envisioning the future of near-surface remote sensing
− Isotope Ecology: Accelerating the integration of NEON data in isotope ecology research
•Notable Meetings: − American Geophysical Union
− Ecological Society of America
− Entomological Society of America
− Biodiversity Information Working Group
− Soil Science Society
NEON, Inc. Update
Aligning Science Questions and Hypotheses, Requirements, Mission Statements
Traceability of Measurements
Algorithms/Procedures
Informatics
• Mapping Questions to ‘what must be done’ • Defines Joint Science Scope / Knowledge Gaps• define interfaces among respective
Infrastructures
• What is the algorithm or procedural process to create a data product?
• Provides “consistent and compatible” data
• Managed through intercomparisons• What are their relative
uncertainties?
• Use of Recognized Standards• Traceability to Recognized Standards,
or First Principles• Known and managed signal:noise• Managing QA/QC• Uncertainty budgets
• Standards – Data / Metadata formats• Persistent Identifiers / Open-source• Discovery tools / Portals• Ontologies, semantics and controlled
vocabularies
1.
2.
3.
4.
Interoperability Framework
Informatics -- Building Block Approach
• Data / Metadata formats• Discipline specific Data Formats• ISO 19115 (29115) compliant• EML
• Persistent Identifiers • Time series / sos• Attribution / Publications• Community Acceptance• Data Providence
• Ontologies, Semantics and Controlled Vocabularies
• Discipline Specific• e.g., BCO, OWL, PCO etc
• Data Policies• Community acceptance• Open-source
• Data Management• Plans and accountability• Archival Policy
• Data Sovereignty
• Intellectual Property Rights• Individual / Institutional
• Discovery tools / Portals• Ease of use• Interoperable / Harmonized
Emergent bottom-up Networks
• EREN — Ecological Research as Education Network
Laurie Anderson erenweb.org/
• FunDivEurope—Functional Significance of Forest Biodiversity in Europe (also Biodepth-Jena)
Michael Scherer-Lorenzen
www.fundiveurope.eu
• GLEON — Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network
Kathleen Weathers www.gleon.org/
• iLTER — Long Term Ecological Network
Scott Collins www.lternet.edu/
• Biosphere Atmosphere Stable Isotope Network
Todd Dawson basin.yolasite.com/
• NPN — USA-National Phenology Network
Elizabeth Wolkovich www.usanpn.org
• USDA National Soil Carbon Network Chris Swantson www.fluxdata.org/nscn/SitePages/Home
• NTSG — Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group
Bill Smith www.ntsg.umt.edu/
• NutNet — Nutrient Network Eric Lind www.nutnet.org/
• TraitNet — Trait Network (also BioMERGE)
Dan Bunker traitnet.ecoinformatics.org
• ZEN — Zostera Ecological Network Pamela Reynolds zenscience.org/
NEON Focused InteractionsEuropean Union (18 member countries in ICOS)
Italy – Ecosystem Thematic CenterFinland – Governance and PMGermany – Calibration and ValidationNorway – intercomparison
European Union (COOPEUS) - Lifewatch
Australia – TERN
France – EU ESFRI INRA ANAEE
Mexico and Canada – CarboNA + MexFlux
Korea – KEON + KoFlux + AsiaFlux
China – CERN
R+RA CA
Abbreviated Institutional Structure – community engagement for research infrastructure
NEON Inc 501©3
Board of Directors
CEO
STEAC
National Science Foundation
Project ManagerProject Scientist
Observatory Director
MREFC CA
MREFC CAR+RA CA
CO
MM
ISS
ION
ING
TR
AN
SIT
ION
The NEON ObservatoryOperations
Constrained activity
The NEON ProjectConstruction
Constrained activity
Assignable Assets• Airborne Platform• + Instrumentation• MDP• Biol. Samples/Plots• Cal/Val
Science Systems designed with limited community interface• Workshops• Working groups
Strategic ProjectsDirector
Scientific Community
Other Resources
NEON IncDevelopment Activities
Open-ended activity
Examples• NEON Satellite Sites• Interoperability• New Experiments• New Infrastructure• International• Training Activities
CO
LL
AB
OR
AT
IVE
PR
OC
ES
S
The National Ecological Observatory Network is a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed under cooperative agreement by NEON Inc.