Facilities to Enhance Research and Teaching at the University of Kansas Field Station

University Of Kansas Center For Research Inc, Lawrence KS

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Kansas is awarded a grant to improve facilities at the University of Kansas Field Station (KUFS). The station provides opportunities for research and public education along the ecotone between the eastern deciduous forest and the tallgrass prairie biomes. Construction of the facilities under this award is part of a larger vision of the KUFS to be fulfilled incrementally, in which the station will attract a greater diversity of students and faculty members from around the globe to world-class facilities inspired by environmentally sound principles. The funds will be used to construct an experimental greenhouse-mesocosm-common garden facility that will support classical mesocosm research, using experimental test systems representing an intermediate step between small laboratory systems and the natural world, serve general ecology workspace needs, and provide the capacity for year-round plant care and propagation that does not currently exist at KUFS. In addition, storm shelters will be constructed for the growing community of site users, an important safety feature given the weather conditions found at KUFS. Enhancement of the facilities at KUFS will help satisfy four critical long-term objectives. First, it will improve the setting where individual-investigator research can explore ecological questions at multiple spatial scales and multiple levels of experimental control. Second, it will further facilitate multi-investigator, interdisciplinary research projects. Third, it will lay the groundwork for future expansions to incorporate significant energy efficiency and sustainability concepts. Fourth, it will augment KUFS? contributions to large-scale networks such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (http://neoninc.org) and the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/index.jsp). KUFS activities encompass a broad array of teaching, public outreach, and research programs, targeting populations ranging from university students to school children, as well as the general public. Research at KUFS has provided a broad base of knowledge about ecotonal ecosystems in the region, and has fostered the development of scores of students and researchers. The proposed facilities will aid in the development of the KUFS mission by 1) improving research infrastructure in a way that promotes linkages between ecological levels of organization (i.e. communities, populations, and ecosystems) and bridges spatial scales (i.e. laboratory, mesocosm, and field studies); and 2) providing an enhanced platform on which to base undergraduate and graduate education. Importantly, improved facilities will help KUFS serve as a link between regional and national-scale science and education. For more information about the station, please visit the website at http://www.kufs.ku.edu/.