Smithsonian Environmental Research Center NEON - United States of America

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is a relocatable terrestrial site and part of NEON's Mid-Altantic Domain 2 sites. SERC is located in Anne Arundel county, Maryland and managed by the Smithsonian Institute. Located along the Rhode River, the location has diverse habitats ranging from decidous forests, wetlands, and estuaries. Remote sensing surveys of this field site collect lidar, spectrometer and high-resolution RGB camera data. The flux/meteorological tower at this site is 204ft with 6 measurement levels. The tower top extends above the vegetation canopy to allow sensors mounted at the top and along the tower to capture the full profile of atmospheric conditions from the top of the vegetation canopy to the ground. The tower collects physical and chemical properties of atmosphere-related processes, such as humidity, wind, and net ecosystem gas exchange. Precipitation data are collected by a tipping bucket at the top of the tower and a series of throughfalls located in the soil array. There are also multiple plots for soil sensors and sampling and organismal sampling including birds, ticks, mammals, ground beetles, soil microbes, and mosquitoes. Total data products planned for this site: 116