The vision of a Utah biologist is helping to drive one of the most amazing scientific research and prediction projects ever envisioned.

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is intended to become a scientific network capable of making thousands of measurements simultaneously, checking everything from bacteria in the soil to health of forests. It could monitor air moisture and pollution, track climate change and perform experiments throughout the country.

Jim MacMahon, trustee professor of biology at Utah State University, is the chairman of the NEON board of directors. He was one of about nine experts who wrote the original proposal for the network, and he also chairs the project's science committee.

Funded by the National Science Foundation and involving hundreds of researchers, NEON may cost $1 billion to build over 15 or 20 years.

"What we want to do is to forecast what's happening to the human environment," MacMahon said.

If global warming is taking place, the system should show it. If rainfall patterns are changing, NEON should not only indicate how they are shifting but help scientists predict what the changes will mean.

According to its Web site — www.neoninc.org — the project will be "the first national ecological measurement and observation system designed both to answer regional- to continental-scale scientific questions and to have the interdisciplinary participation necessary to achieve credible ecological forecasting and prediction."

The Web site proclaims that NEON is "a national-scale research and eduction platform, addressing some of the most complex environmental challenges unfolding across the United States."

NEON will coordinate sophisticated monitoring equipment throughout the United States. The devices will check for the spread of invasive species, changes in chemical cycles in nature, land-use shifts and many other factors. It will look for the spread of infectious diseases and keep an eye on biodiversity.

"Right now, we're in the second year of a grant from the National Science Foundation," MacMahon said. For the first two years, planners have been assembling scientists to design the program.

"It's a very complicated system," he said.

Data will be radioed to communications centers, which will make them available on the Internet within about 78 hours of collecting the information. Interested people will be able to track information gathered by NEON by using their home computers.

Monitors will check for air pollution, measure soil temperature and even study DNA to see if there are changes in bacteria. NEON will be able to make forecasts about ecological changes, which decision-makers can rely upon.