Biogeoscience Institute

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Biogeoscience Institute (BGS) is a University level Institute reporting to the Vice President Research of the University of Calgary. It consists of two facilities: The Barrier Lake Station (built in 1967 using NRC infrastructure grant) located in the Kananaskis River Valley 80 km west of Calgary, and the R.B. Miller Station (founded in 1950) in the Sheep River Wildlife Sanctuary 120 km southwest of Calgary. Both stations operate year round. BGS also operates two research watersheds. The mandate of BGS is to provide resources for interdisciplinary environmental research and training to universities, government, and the private sector. The BGS operates the only field stations and research watersheds in the Canadian Rockies. It attracts each year on average 57 independently funded researchers and, in addition, facilitates five interdisciplinary research clusters with 18 principal investigators. The Barrier Lake Station can accommodate about 110 users with access to high service laboratories, growth chambers, boats, computer facilities, walk-in cold rooms, dark room, GIS lab, GPS base station and rover units, library, and herbarium-zoology collections. There is a main lodge which includes a 26 person dormitory and kitchen/dining facility with full time cook, and a lab/library building with six labs and one lecture room. A second dormitory and kitchen/dining facility holds 30 persons. Besides these, there are five duplex units, two houses, one cabin, and three mobile homes available to users. The R.B. Miller Station consists of a cabin, cookhouse, bunkhouse, laboratory, wash house and one trailer. The facilities can accommodate 20 users and provides electric power and water. BGS averages 16,000 user days per year and was used by 35 universities over the last six years. There are 16 projects that have lasted over 15 years, 14 projects that have lasted 5-10 years, and 56 projects that have lasted 2-3 years. External use is always greater than that by the University of Calgary. Over the last six years, 56 theses, 319 refereed scientific papers, and three books have resulted from research at BGS and 14,600 students have taken University courses.