Building research collaboration for the future: enhancement of the UOBS Aquatic Research Park

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The University of Oklahoma is awarded a grant to modernize, expand, and refurbish the UO Biological Station Aquatic Research Park with both new construction and existing facilities improvements. The station is located in Marshall County, Oklahoma on the north shore of Lake Texoma, a large (88,000 acre) impoundment of the Red and Washita Rivers on the Oklahoma-Texas border. UOBS includes a maintained campus of 30 acres, with an additional natural area (300 acres) leased from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and designated as an Ecological Research Area. Federal land-use regulations on lands bordering USACE managed impoundments preclude residential, commercial, or industrial development. The Station was established in 1949 and has been central to tens of millions of dollars in external funding, over 1,200 publications, nearly 200 dissertations and theses, and over 1,000 undergraduate and high school student research papers since its inception. The improvements enabled by this grant will elevate this experimental research facility to a nationally and internationally recognized experimental aquatic ecology locus that fosters transformative research, exciting educational experiences, and continues to serve as a base for future generations of well trained researchers and academicians. The specific improvements include a greenhouse containing both a field lab for sample processing and a controlled-environment experimental microcosm/mesocosm facility. Modifications and improvements to existing facilities on adjacent US Army Core of Engineers property includes placing existing limno-tanks on concrete pads, installing plumbing and drainage for each stream and tank facility, and adding shade frames to each facility.The improvements will allow UOBS to serve the broader regional, national, and international research community by providing first-rate experimental aquatic mesocosm facilities. This growth in the research program will be accompanied by increased interactions between resident and guest/visiting researchers, increased probability for enhanced collaborative research projects, and a boost to the potential impact of exposure to an intellectual and scientific atmosphere on visiting school groups. Resident faculty and staff are actively involved in presenting talks or arranging lab displays for UOBS summer session students, pre-collegiate (high school) summer academy students, and other groups such as the Native American Studies Math and Science Camp, Southeastern Oklahoma St. Univ. Upward Bound, and the Chickasaw Nation Youth Conservation Corps. These visiting educational groups will make use of the new facilities (e.g., experimental greenhouse) either in conjunction with on-going research projects, or as stand-alone group exercises, as has been the case with previous access to current UOBS facilities. For further information about the UO Biological Station and this project please visit the station's website at http://www.ou.edu/uobs/.