This data publication contains the zipped scores parquet database and the targets used in the analysis for the NEON Challenge aquatics synthesis: scores.zip contains evaluated forecast scores, targets.zip contains in-situ water temperature and dissolved oxygen data generated for the Challenge, and Model_descriptions.csv contains the meta data for the submitted models used in the analysis. scores: this is the primary dataset used in the manuscript. The database includes the scores (forecasts evaluated against observations). targets: these are the data used to evaluate the forecast (observations) and were also available to forecast teams in near-real time. The R script included in this folder (aquatics_targets.R) is intended for reference only and cannot be run. Model_descriptions.csv: table of summarised meta data on forecast model approaches submitted by forecast teams. This includes whether the forecasts include (1) or exclude (0) each source of uncertainty/initial conditions/model updating, which covariates are included, and the reported model class.