FSML: Increasing access to the Crown of the Continent: A visiting researcher laboratory at the Flathead Lake Biological Station (Montana)

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For ecologists, field stations are fundamental components of scientific infrastructure akin to telescopes for astronomers. Generally, such stations service both scientists of the institution that runs the station as well as visiting researchers. This project will involve an expansion of laboratory facilities at the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS), one of the USA's oldest field stations, to allow for increased capacity to house visiting researchers. This renovation is in response to major recent increases in activity at FLBS following hiring of a new director and new faculty at the station. Providing these new facilities is important because they will provide access to Flathead Lake, the USA's largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, as well as lakes and rivers that flow in both relatively undisturbed environments as well as those being impacted by human activity, providing abundant opportunity for research on diverse topics. Terrestrial environments including grassland, forest, and alpine tundra can also be accessed. In addition to research advancement, the new facilities will advance education by providing greater access to diverse research projects for undergraduate students who enroll in summer field courses at FLBS. Finally, this increased capacity will allow important new research to take place in this region on topics such as water quantity and quality, climate change, fisheries management, and assessment of invasive species and endangered species.This project will involve a major renovation of the upper level of a building at the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS; https://flbs.umt.edu/newflbs) to transform it from its current role as a storage facility for field equipment into a state-of-the-art research laboratory for visiting researchers, the FLBS Visiting Researcher Collaboratory (VRC). The targeted outcome is 820 ft2 of new research-grade laboratory space to support increased use of FLBS by external researchers drawn from the state of Montana and beyond. This renovation is in response to major recent increases in activity at FLBS following hiring of a new director and new faculty. These increases are bringing use of existing FLBS facilities to a saturation level, making it difficult to maintain and expand the role of the station in serving outside users conducting research in this region. The facility will allow new researchers to develop projects in the region’s diverse ecosystems and to continue or develop new collaborations with FLBS researchers to advance this work. By providing improved and expanded facilities for visiting researchers, the VRC will expand the ability of ecologists to make fundamental advances in our understanding of ecosystems in the Crown of the Continent and their response to ongoing global change. The VRC will also increase the opportunities for rich interdisciplinary interactions among researchers and students at all levels. FLBS also attracts students at all levels to Yellow Bay for summer classes, internships, and field trips. Developing a rich base of new "outside" users of the station will increase the opportunities afforded and perspectives gained by these students as well as the broader community with which FLBS interacts. Finally, much of the research that will be facilitated by the laboratory is of broad societal interest, dealing with topics of water quantity and quality, climate change, fisheries management, and assessment of invasive species and endangered species.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.