Harnessing the NEON data revolution to advance open environmental science with a diverse and data-capable community

It is a critical time to reflect on the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) science to date as well as envision what research can be done right now with NEON (and other) data and what training is needed to enable a diverse user community. NEON became fully operational in May 2019 and has pivoted from planning and construction to operation and maintenance. In this overview, the history of and foundational thinking around NEON are discussed. A framework of open science is described with a discussion of how NEON can be situated as part of a larger data constellation—across existing networks and different suites of ecological measurements and sensors. Next, a synthesis of early NEON science, based on >100 existing publications, funded proposal efforts, and emergent science at the very first NEON Science Summit (hosted by Earth Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder in October 2019) is provided. Key questions that the ecology community will address with NEON data in the next 10 yr are outlined, from understanding drivers of biodiversity across spatial and temporal scales to defining complex feedback mechanisms in human–environmental systems. Last, the essential elements needed to engage and support a diverse and inclusive NEON user community are highlighted: training resources and tools that are openly available, funding for broad community engagement initiatives, and a mechanism to share and advertise those opportunities. NEON users require both the skills to work with NEON data and the ecological or environmental science domain knowledge to understand and interpret them. This paper synthesizes early directions in the community’s use of NEON data, and opportunities for the next 10 yr of NEON operations in emergent science themes, open science best practices, education and training, and community building

Temperature, larval diet, and density effects on development rate and survival of Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae).

Many environmental factors, biotic and abiotic interact to influence organismal development. Given the importance of Aedes aegypti as a vector of human pathogens including dengue and yellow fever, understanding the impact of environmental factors such as temperature, resource availability, and intraspecific competition during development is critical for population control purposes. Despite known associations between developmental traits and factors of diet and density, temperature has been considered the primary driver of development rate and survival. To determine the relative importance of these critical factors, wide gradients of conditions must be considered. We hypothesize that 1) diet and density, as well as temperature influence the variation in development rate and survival, 2) that these factors interact, and this interaction is also necessary to understand variation in developmental traits. Temperature, diet, density, and their two-way interactions are significant factors in explaining development rate variation of the larval stages of Ae. aegypti mosquitoes. These factors as well as two and three-way interactions are significantly associated with the development rate from hatch to emergence. Temperature, but not diet or density, significantly impacted juvenile mortality. Development time was heteroskedastic with the highest variation occurring at the extremes of diet and density conditions. All three factors significantly impacted survival curves of experimental larvae that died during development. Complex interactions may contribute to variation in development rate. To better predict variation in development rate and survival in Ae. aegypti, factors of resource availability and intraspecific density must be considered in addition, but never to the exclusion of temperature

Mean development rate for larval stages (A) and from hatch to emergence (B).

<p>Bars indicate standard error. Character shape, color, and line type indicate initial density level. Lines indicate simple linear regression for density treatments.</p

Mortality rate across temperature (A), diet concentration (B), and initial density (C).

<p>Mortality rate across temperature (A), diet concentration (B), and initial density (C).</p

Experimental design of diet, density, and resultant ratios of mg/larva/day.

<p>Experimental design of diet, density, and resultant ratios of mg/larva/day.</p

Development rate of larval stages (A) and hatch to emergence (B) across temperature and mg/larva/day.

<p>Line color indicates levels of mg/larva/day. Black bars indicate standard error.</p

CR ANOVA of temperature, diet (mg/ml/day), and initial density for development rate of larval stages.

<p>CR ANOVA of temperature, diet (mg/ml/day), and initial density for development rate of larval stages.</p

Mean development time from hatch to emergence for all treatments with standard error in parentheses.

<p>For each diet, values are averaged across density treatments. For each density, values are averaged across diet.</p

CR ANOVA of temperature, diet, and initial density for development rate from hatch to emergence.

<p>CR ANOVA of temperature, diet, and initial density for development rate from hatch to emergence.</p

Mean development rate for larval stages (A) and from hatch to emergence across diet treatments.

<p>The amounts of each diet (mg/ml) were added to experimental cups daily. Bars indicate standard error. Character shape, color, and line type indicate diet treatment. Lines indicate simple linear regression for diet treatments.</p