The NEON Ecological Forecasting Challenge

Thomas et al discuss the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) ecological forecasting challenge. The 21st century continues to be characterized by major changes to the environment and the ecosystem services upon which society depends. Anticipating and responding to these changes requires that scientists explicitly forecast future conditions in real time. Ecological forecasting, like weather and epidemiological forecasting, involves integrating data and models to generate quantitative predictions of the future state of ecological systems before observations are collected. NEON is a powerful platform to support such a challenge because it provides standardized data with reported uncertainties that span a range of environmental conditions and levels of biological organization across terrestrial and freshwater systems in the US.