LeConte Creek NEON - United States of America

LeConte Creek (LECO) is one of Domain 07's relocatable aquatic sites, and is co-located with Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Twin Creeks (GRSM) .Specifically located in the southwest area of Tennessee bordering North Carolina. The watershed size is approximately 9.39 km^2. Remote sensing surveys of this site collect lidar, spectrometer and high resolution RGB camera data. This site has one meteorological station located in the riparian area. The met station is outfitted with a subset of the same sensors used at terrestrial sites. Measurements include wind speed and direction, air temperature, barometric pressure, relative humidity, shortwave radiation, and PAR. This site has one upstream sensor station and one downstream sensor station. Measurements include PAR, temperature, water quality [specific conductivity, chlorophyll a, dissolved oxygen content, pH, turbidity, and fluorescent dissolved organic matter (only downstream)], and nitrate is measured at the downstream station. Due to logistical and permitting issues, this aquatic site does not have groundwater wells. Field ecologists collect the following types of observational data at this site: aquatic organisms (Aquatic Microbes (surface water),macroinvertebrates microalgae, plants and macroalgae, zooplankton. Biogeochemical data on plants,sediment water and particulates.As well as physical aquatic data on bathymetric maps, stage,secchi depth and depth profiles, and riparian assessment.