The Dakota Coteau Field School (DCFS) terrestrial field site is located in Stuntsman County, North Dakota, approximately 100 miles northeast of Bismarck, in an area known as the "Prairie Pothole Region." It is encompassed in the Northern Plains Domain, which includes a patchwork of grasslands, agricultural, and wetland/aquatic communities embedded in a matrix of small agrarian communities. This site is managed by the State of North Dakota Land Trust and is moderately grazed throughout the year. NEON sampling at DCFS occurs across nonadjacent land parcels interspersed by private land. Remote sensing surveys of this field site collect lidar, spectrometer and high-resolution RGB camera data.
The flux/meteorological tower at this site is 26 with 4 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. This site has five soil plots placed in an array within the airshed of the flux tower. Field ecologists collect the following types of observational data at this site: Terrestrial organisms (birds, ground beetles, mosquitoes, plants, small mammals, soil microbes, ticks), Biogeochemical data, and soil data
