Research Improvements at the UNM Sevilleta Field Station

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The University of New Mexico is awarded a grant to complete the third and final phase of a long term strategic plan to improve the Sevilleta Education and Research Facility (SERF) for visiting scientists, summer REU students, graduate students and group training. This project involves the components to complete and equip shell spaces in the facility to provide growth chambers, a computer laboratory, and an institutional kitchen. The first consists of the acquisition of several environmental chambers of various sizes and capabilities to enable controlled-environment experiments with plants, insects, small animals and microorganisms. The second component is a multi-purpose computer research and training laboratory that will allow training and data analysis ranging from GIS to molecular evolution and ecology. Funds will provide for computer workstations, visualization equipment, and tables to furnish this multi-use classroom-sized computer laboratory. The third component is to complete kitchen facilities available to researchers participating in events such as training workshops, research conferences, LTER working groups, and formal and informal gatherings of REU summer students. Previous phases of this strategic plan have been completed and resulted in the construction of a new 20,000 square-foot facility and an increase in guest capacity from 48 to 82 through a combination of new construction and renovation of existing buildings. The intellectual merit exists in the goal to develop modern facilities for researchers in many fields of biological science. The broader impacts include greater access to learning opportunities and research facilities for an extremely diverse student population at UNM, and for other visiting scientists and their students from institutions within and outside New Mexico. UNM is a minority serving institution, and the Sevilleta Field Station and Sevilleta LTER Program are dedicated to enhancing minority participation in field-based research.For more information about the Sevilleta Education and Research Facility please visit: http://sevfs.unm.edu/