What is the difference between NEON and the Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER)? Is NEON just an expansion of the LTER program?
NEON is a centrally operated user facility that enables responses to grand challenge questions in the environmental sciences and enables ecological forecasting. In contrast, the LTER program is a collection of individual investigator projects aligned with common themes. Each individual LTER site has its own realization of those themes. NEON and LTER are separate programs that operate separately, although NEON will certainly use the experience and knowledge gained through LTER research.
