North Sterling NEON - United States of America

DEIMS.iD

https://deims.org/5d4a0457-aff6-410b-b43a-2b3a00fba990

This record was created automatically using information from the:
Basic Information
Site Name
North Sterling NEON
Short name
STER
Country
United States of America
Web Address
https://www.neonscience.org/field-sites/ster
Site Manager
Chau Tran
Site Description
North Sterling (STER) is a terrestrial NEON field site located in Logan County in northeast Colorado. It has an sampling area of 3.2 km2 (791 acres) and sits at about 1350 m (4429 ft.) elevation. STER is an agriculture site on privately owned land. Various crops are grown across the site, including winter wheat, millet, and maize. The North Sterling site was selected to represent agricultural land and practices in eastern Colorado. The site is part of NEON’s Central Plains Domain (D10), along with two other terrestrial sites and one aquatic site. STER is not colocated with an aquatic field site.
Last modified
2025-09-18 16:09:47

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
2014
Observed properties
Affiliation and Network Specific Information
Affiliation
GERI✔This site is a verified "GERI" member.
NEON✔ (STER)This site is a verified "NEON" member.
Photos
NEON meteorological/flux tower at North Sterling, CO NEON
NEON meteorological/flux tower at North Sterling, CO NEON
Geographic
View in site map
Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 40.4619 Longitude: -103.0293

Size
ca. 258.00ha
Elevation (average)
1365.00msl
Elevation (min)
1352.00msl
Elevation (max)
1371.00msl
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Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml] [.geojson]
Bounding Box [.shp] [.kml] [.geojson]
GEO-BON Biome
Terrestrial
Biome
Agricultural
Ecosystem Type
Agricultural
Air Temperature: Average Annual
9.70°C
Precipitation Annual
433.00mm
Geology
The geology at this site is characteristic of the Ogallala Formation which is comprised of alternating conglomerates and sandstones.
Vegetation
Cropping systems under no-till management were initiated in 1985 at the STER location. Possible crops include winter wheat, winter wheat-maize, millet, maize, sorghum, triticale, forage millet, and sunflower. Over 85% of the sampling area is cultivated crops, with the rest being classified as grassland herbaceous or developed open space. However, under the current Land Use Agreement, sampling only occurs in the space for cultivated crops. Over 60 distinct plant species have been identified within the sampling area.
Soils
Soils at the STER site originate from aeolian deposits, loess, recent alluvium, and Tertiary aged alluvium. The major components of soils are from several different pedon types: Colby, Kuma, Platner, Rago, Sampson, Stoneham, Wages, and Weld.
Hydrology
There are no major aquatic systems within the site boundary. Concentrated precipitation events can lead to flooding in the region. Snow cover does not last long due to the abundance of sunlight.
Site Type
Non-stationary land-based site
Design of Experimentation
mainly experimentation
Scale of Experimentation
catchment scale
Design of Observation
mainly observation
Scale of Observation
beyond catchment
Permanent Power Supply
Yes
Accessible All Year
Yes
Permanent Operation
Yes