RUI: Implementing the Otsego Lake Watershed Plan - Enhancement of Lake Access, Laboratory and Field Instrumentation and Associated Research

位于奥尼奥尼塔的纽约州立大学(SUNY)学院获得了一笔赠款，用于支持其生物田间站(BFS)的基础设施改善，用于一系列协调的跨学科研究项目和研究培训/教育，这些项目是由来自纽约州立大学奥尼奥尼塔分校、位于科布尔斯基尔的纽约州立大学农业与技术学院(SUNY Cobleskill)和康奈尔大学纽约农业与生命科学学院的教职员工进行的。仪器的建造和购置将有助于启动和完善配合执行奥塞戈湖流域管理计划进行的研究。建造工程需要在切萨皮克湾流域Susquehanna流域的源头奥塞戈湖的支流修建一系列堰，以便利长期的河流水文、沉积物和营养物质平衡监测和分析；购买4艘船，以取代1970年由国家SF供资购买的那些船；购置仪器，以完善奥塞戈湖鱼类种群的声学评估，收集具有支流水质特点的鱼，以及分析该湖及其支流的水生生物群。这些改进将直接加强BFS的教职员工和学生的研究，这些研究涉及土地利用做法和引入的物种对水质的影响；营养物质的可获得性和循环；现场废水处理系统的评估投入及其缓解；动物和浮游植物、大型底栖无脊椎动物和鱼类寄生虫的种群动态；渔业生物学和管理；以及外来饲料鱼和滋扰水生植物的生物控制。纽约州立大学Oneonta BFS有很强的传统，培训学生(准备上大学的高中、本科生和研究生)进行生态和环境研究。这些改进将有助于扩大暑期实习和学年本科生研究项目，使更多的学生掌握攻读研究生或专业培训所需的技能，或获得相关的入门职位。它还将增加可用于新提出的研究生项目-湖泊管理科学硕士项目的可用资源，该项目现已接近纽约州立大学行政部门的最终批准。此外，拟议的建设和仪器将提高我们吸引高质量研究人员和形成新合作的能力。作为学术界与地方、州和联邦合作伙伴参与的模式，并将生态学理论直接应用于水质管理，生物多样性研究的影响超出了地方、区域和国家层面。

The State University of New York (SUNY) College at Oneonta is awarded a grant to support infrastructure improvements at its Biological Field Station (BFS) for a range of coordinated interdisciplinary research projects and research training/education conducted by faculty and staff from SUNY Oneonta, the SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill (SUNY Cobleskill), and the NYS College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. The construction and acquisition of the instrumentation will enable initiation and refinement of research undertaken in coordination with implementation of the Otsego Lake Watershed Management Plan. Construction entails a series of weirs in tributaries to Otsego Lake, the headwaters of the Susquehanna watershed in the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin, to facilitate long-term stream hydrologic, sediment and nutrient mass balance monitoring and analysis; the purchase of four boats to replace those acquired with NSF funding in 1970; acquisition of instrumentation to refine acoustic evaluation off Otsego Lake fish populations, to collect fish characterizing tributary water quality, and for analysis of the aquatic biota in both the lake and its tributaries. These improvements will directly enhance BFS faculty, staff and student research involving impacts of land use practices and introduced species on water quality; nutrient availability and cycling; the evaluation inputs by onsite wastewater treatment systems and the mitigation thereof; population dynamics of zoo- and phytoplankton, macrobenthic invertebrates and fish parasites; fisheries biology and management; and biocontrol of exotic forage fish and nuisance aquatic plants. The SUNY Oneonta BFS has a strong tradition of training students (college-bound high school, undergraduate, and graduate) in ecological and environmental studies. The improvements will help expand summer internship and academic year undergraduate research programs, enabling more students to master the skills needed to pursue graduate study or professional training, or to obtain related entry-level positions. It will also enhance resources available to a newly-proposed graduate program, a Master of Science in Lake Management, now close to final SUNY Administration approval. Additionally, the proposed construction and instrumentation will improve our ability to attract quality researchers and form new collaborations. As a model involving academia with local, State and Federal partners, and applying ecological theory directly to water quality management, the impact of BFS research extends beyond the local to regional and national levels.