NEON operates this instrument-laden tower in Alaska, which gathers data on the surrounding taiga ecosystem.
Credit: Chris McKay, Batelle Memorial Inst.

An ecological observatory funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) is in turmoil after a top leader quit and its advisory board was dissolved.

On 4 January, the contractor that manages the US$434-million National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) dismissed two long-time project managers. NEON’s scientific director, Sharon Collinge, who says she was not consulted about the moves, resigned in protest on 8 January. Later that day, the contractor disbanded the organization’s scientific advisory board.

In an e-mail to the advisory board — seen by Nature — Battelle, the non-profit contractor in Columbus, Ohio, that runs NEON, said that its actions were driven by the “changing needs of the research community”.

NEON has almost finished constructing a web of more than 80 ecological observation sites across the United States, and is beginning to produce data for ecologists to analyse. “Given the maturation of the NEON project, it is appropriate to re-examine the […]