LeConte Creek NEON - United States of America

LeConte Creek (LECO) is an aquatic NEON field site in the northwest part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, located in eastern Tennessee. LECO is hosted by the National Park Service. LeConte Creek is a second-order wadeable stream with a series of steps and pools, consisting of many large granitic boulders and bordered by thick vegetation. It drains a 9.13 km2 (2256 acre) watershed. The park is characterized by abundant rainfall, variable elevations, and an exceptional richness of biota hosted by closed-canopy deciduous old growth forests. As one of the largest protected areas in the eastern U.S., it is the most biodiverse park in the national park system and the most visited. LECO is part of NEON Domain 07 - Appalachians & Cumberland Plateau, which includes eastern Tennessee, most of Kentucky, southern Ohio, and parts of North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, and Illinois. D07 includes four other NEON field sites, including three terrestrial sites and one additional aquatic site. LECO is colocated with the GRSM terrestrial field site.