NEON Biorepository

I am the Environmental and Zoological Collections Manager for the National Science Foundation's National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Biorepository at Arizona State University (ASU). NEON is a continental-scale observation facility operated by Battelle and designed to collect long-term open access ecological data to better understand how U.S. ecosystems are changing. The comprehensive data, spatial extent and remote sensing technology provided by NEON will enable a large and diverse user community to tackle new questions at scales not accessible to previous generations of ecologists. NEON collects environmental data and archival samples that characterize plant, animals, soil, nutrients, freshwater and atmosphere from 81 field sites strategically located in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems across the U.S. Archival samples are housed at the NEON Biorepository at ASU, located approximately 2 miles southwest of the main ASU Tempe campus. I manage NEON plant, bryophyte, algae, soil, wet deposition, particulate matter, and vertebrate collections. I am also responsible for permitting and biosafety for the Biorepository.