Sustainable Infrastructure for the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station Upper Research Site

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The proposal seeks funding to renovate biological field station by replacing a laboratory building located on the Upper Research Site of SUNY-Oneonta?s Biological Field Station. The Upper Research Site is located near Moe Pond in New York State and is a relatively remote research area comprising the oldest of the field station?s nearly 1000-ha holdings. The site has been used for studies on primary productivity in old fields undergoing succession, community ecology of anthropophilous mosquitoes, trematode and mollusk life cycles and population dynamics, fisheries ecology, impacts of invasive species, trophic cascades associated with water quality management and land use, and other topics. The field station has a record of supporting research training for women students with women making up 52% of the field station?s student interns over the past four decades.The structure proposed for replacement is a primitive wood-frame field laboratory, about 5m x 12m. The upgrade to more modern laboratory space will provide researchers with the ability to conduct more sophisticated studies and will allow researchers to establish long-planned projects in ornithology, parasitology, geomorphology, botany, and population ecology. Examples of research projects that would benefit from the renovated facility include: studies of dynamic trophic cascades resulting from alterations in the fisheries in Moe Pond; research on the response of mosquito populations to changes in the nature of the site (e.g. fluctuations in beaver activity); comparison of nutrient runoff from forested lands on acid soils at the Upper Research Site with runoff from primarily agricultural land cover on the more basic soils of the Thayer Farm section of the field station; research on helminth parasites of fishes including a study of the gene flow of C. cornutum and N. rutili in their host populations; Ornithological research including how and why birds sing, the interactive nature of avian communication, breeding behavior, long-term studies of the avian population, and research on the impact of human disturbance on passerine reproductive success; research on cross-biome aquatic carbon biogeochemistry and metabolism.In addition to providing infrastructure for research, the renovation will provide a resource that will be used by undergraduate and graduate student researchers. It will contribute to the training of graduate students in a new Master of Science in Lake Management program. The renovation will make it possible to extend to the Upper Research Site, the university?s programs of pre-college field experiences and of capstone experiences in the relatively new interdisciplinary major in Environmental Studies. The refurbished laboratory will play a role in long-term ecological studies of the watershed of the upper reaches of the Susquehanna River.