Day 3: Working with data from the National Ecological Observatory Network
14:00-14:45 UTC - Keynote: Scaling Up: Integrating Continental Aquatic Data to Understand Food-Web Structure
Frank Akamagwuna (University of San Diego)
Freshwater ecosystems vary widely in climate, productivity, and resource supply, yet understanding how these gradients shape food-web structure requires data that extend far beyond what individual studies can provide. In this keynote, I highlight how continental-scale macroinvertebrate datasets are revealing broad patterns in food webs and ecosystem function, and discuss the open data infrastructure, collaboration networks, and analytical workflow that make this possible, with a focus on NEON’s aquatic observational and instrument data products. This sets the stage for the workshop that follows, demonstrating how open, integrated datasets can be leveraged to address ecological questions at continental scales.
A live stream of the pre-recorded keynote will begin at 14:00 UTC, followed immediately by a live Question and Answer session with the speaker.
14:45-15:00 UTC - Break
15:00-17:00 UTC - Workshop: Linking NEON aquatic observational and instrument data to answer critical questions in aquatic ecology at the continental scale
Zach Nickerson (NEON) and Steph Parker (NEON)
The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) provides open data from a continental-scale network of monitoring locations, including 34 aquatic sites stationed in stream, river, and lake ecosystems. This hands-on coding workshop will teach participants how to access, interpret, manipulate and visualize NEON aquatic data within the R statistical software environment. The focus of the workshop will be on linking aquatic macroinvertebrate community data with water quality, stream discharge, and other sensor data.
A traditional part of AEMON-J meetings in the past has been to openly discuss ideas for new, joint projects.
This time in the schedule is to bring up such ideas, perhaps inspired by the workshops earlier that day, and discuss.
If no such ideas are pitched, this time can also be used for small talk, networking, and other social activities.
