RUI: Improvement in Facilities at the SUNY College at Oneonta Biological Field Station

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This award supports renovation of a two story, 2520 sq. ft. building to provide offices, a small reception area, a small conference room, and two large laboratory spaces at the SUNY College at Oneonta's Biological Field Station (BFS). The station, which dates from 1967, is located at Osego Lake, the headwaters for the Susquehanna River. The BFS consists of 5 parcels of land totaling over 2000 acres of land. The building is located one of these parcels, called the Thayer Farm, that was given to the BFS in 2001. The renovated building will mitigate severe overcrowding at the existing BFS main laboratory, and will allow separation of analytical research areas from field laboratories and program outreach. Pre-college and course-related undergraduate activities are concurrently moving from the main laboratory into another building on the Thayer Farm. The renovated building will make the BFS more attractive to visiting researchers by relieving crowding. As planned, the renovated spaces will allow assess to research sites on a year-round basis and minimize effort involved in operation of locally-placed, automated instruments for water collection and analysis. The BFS integrates research and instructional roles into a single coordinated effort addressing regional, and ultimately national, environmental problems, generally oriented towards ecological research and long-term monitoring programs on inland waters. Research at the BFS includes fisheries management and biology, population dynamics of zoo- and phytoplankton, ecology of benthic macroinvertebrates, characterization of nutrient flow through food webs consisting of freshwater protozoa, bacteria, and micrometazoa, as well as research related to terrestrial invasive species management and ecology of native plants. The BFS conducts long-term research and ecological monitoring of Otsego Lake, with some datasets that began over 100 years ago. These data are unique in that they have academic, applied, and teaching components. Ongoing projects have expanded monitoring efforts to include the testing of hypotheses relevant to management activities, including small experiments and whole-ecosystem (e.g., whole-lake) manipulations. As applied science, the projects serve the community by monitoring water quality, controlling cultural eutrophication, managing aquatic nuisance species and assessing environmental pollutants. As a model that unites academia with local, State and Federal partners to apply ecological theory directly to water quality management, the impact of BFS research extends beyond the local to regional and national levels. The BFS has a strong tradition of training students (college-bound high school, undergraduate, and graduate students) in ecological and environmental studies. The renovations are expected to help expand programs of research and technical training at the BFS, enabling more undergraduate students to master the technical and research skills needed to pursue graduate study or professional training, or to obtain related entry-level positions.