The Sevilleta Research Field Station: Infrastructure Enhancements for High-quality Water Resources and Wireless Data Transmission

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Project Abstract. A grant has been awarded to the University of New Mexico for improving the research capabilities at the UNM Sevilleta Research Field Station. The Sevilleta field station is located on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in central New Mexico. The station provides logistical field support to a large number of scientists and students studying the ecology, geology, anthropology, and climatology of the Middle Rio Grande Valley. The research and training use of the field station has continued at a high level of activity, having increased dramatically in the early 1990s. Continual increases in the station's role in hosting field research programs, research symposia, workshops, conferences and educational activities have accentuated the need for several improvements and additions in the station's infrastructure. This project will provide funds for (1) enhancement of the field station's water supply for residence and laboratory use, and (2) install a "wireless cloud" of radio relay systems for real-time transmission of data between the Sevilleta station and field-situated computers, data loggers, web-cams, and other automated instruments located across the Sevilleta NWR study areas. These improvements will enhance not only residence living conditions at the station, but also will substantially improve the infrastructure capability for researchers using the Sevilleta NWR as a field experimental site. The improved, high-quality water system will provide deionized and distilled water for laboratory experiments and measurements of such things as soil texture and plant nutrients. The new water system also will provide better quality potable water for resident researchers and workshop/conference attendees who use the field station facilities throughout the year. The "wireless cloud" will provide the "backbone" transmission system for current and future automated probes, instruments and cameras that provide continuous, real-time measures of many environmental parameters (these include weather data, soil temperatures and moisture levels, carbon dioxide fluctuations, movements of animals, etc.).