NEON’s Mobile Deployment Platform: Seeking Input on a Community Resource

We seek input from the LTER community on the National Ecological Observatory Network’s (NEON) PI and agency requestable Mobile Deployment Platform (MDP). The NEON MDPs (~5-10) will provide the means to observe stochastic or spatially important events, gradients, or quantities that cannot be reliably observed using fixed location sampling (e.g. fires and floods). Due to the transient temporal and spatial nature of such events, the MDPs will be designed to accommodate rapid deployment for time periods up to ~ 1 year. Broadly, the MDPs will be comprised of infrastructure and instrumentation capable of functioning individually or in conjunction with one another to support observations of ecological change, as well as education, training and outreach.  We aim to glean input on selecting infrastructure and instrumentation relevant to meeting the needs of NEON, the LTER and the broader scientific community. This poster will be formatted to allow for direct commentary on the MDP. Comments will be compiled and made available on the NEON website for further discussion.