The Sevilleta Research Field Station: Development of a Long-term Sample Processing Laboratory and Storage Facility.

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Robert R. Parmenter and Dr. James R. Gosz at the University of New Mexico for a renovation project at the Sevilleta Research Field Station, located on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central New Mexico. The Sevilleta Research Field Station provides field support to a large number of scientists and students studying the ecology, geology, anthropology, and climatology of the Middle Rio Grande Valley. The research and training use of the field station has increased dramatically in the 1990's, and demand for laboratory space at the field station has outstripped available facilities; in addition, new long-term initiatives for collecting and storing dried/preserved samples of soils, plant materials, and arthropods, will require expanded laboratory and long-term storage space. With this NSF grant, and with cost share from the University of New Mexico, the UNM scientists will implement a three-part plan in which they will build a new sample storage building and renovate the station's current shop/storage building into laboratory space. The plan includes: (1) moving the station's shop operations into a new, shared shop facility being constructed by FWS, thereby enhancing shop capabilities and creating new lab space, (2) constructing a new storage building for existing field equipment and long-term storage of field samples, and (3) renovating the old shop/storage building into a sample processing laboratory, complete with laboratory benches, casework and increased drying-oven capacities for processing soil and vegetation samples. These improvements will result in a net gain of 1,500 square feet of laboratory space, and nearly double the station's available storage and shop space. The net result will be more usable work space for visiting researchers and students, and a more efficient use of combined building space with FWS. The improved facilities will allow increases in both the quantity and efficiency of research activities in the Middle Rio Grande Valley conducted at the Sevilleta Research Field Station, and therefore will contribute to a large spectrum of databases on the ecology of this region in the American Southwest.