Category Archives: Station

Archbold Biological Station

Teaming Up for Global Grasslands

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Dr. Betsey Boughton, Agroecology Research Director at Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch, monitoring plant species composition in the grassland experiment.
Photo Credit: Research Intern, Jessica Patterson

Author: Dr. Betsey Boughton

Grasslands make up more than 40 percent of the world’s ice-free land. Grasslands are important because they have sustained humanity and thousands of other species for centuries. But today, those grasslands are shifting beneath our feet. Global change—which includes climate change, pollution and other widespread environmental alterations—is transforming the plant species growing in grasslands, and not always in the ways scientists expected. Continue reading →

How Flowering Responds to Climate

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Author: Eric Menges

Since the 1980s, Archbold Biological Station has provided a post-baccalaureate internship program (offered to individuals after they have completed their undergraduate degree). Over the years this has provided hands-on research experience to more than 500 college graduates. “Interns benefit from living at a biological field station, being trained in field research, and completing their independent research project,” explains Dr. Hilary Swain, Executive Director. “It is one of only a few programs nationwide that allows recent graduates to gain research experience before they commit to a graduate program or choose another career path.”

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A Look at Archbold’s Library

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Author: Joe Gentili

Libraries have had a place in all societies with written works for thousands of years. They come in many shapes and sizes and each is designed to serve a different function and a different base of users. Many people are exposed to libraries in the form of their local public branch or perhaps a library in their school. For over seven decades, employees at Archbold Biological Station have had access to a different kind of library, one with the specialized materials and resources that scientists need to do the research they are engaged in.

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Exploring novel objects, novel places, and novel technology

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Author: Dr. Angela Tringali

Researchers at Archbold Biological Station are gathered around a computer screen, watching a video of a bird hop around a doll. The bird is gathering peanuts that have been placed around the doll’s feet. The doll is a troll doll, complete with brightly colored hair and a jeweled belly button. The bird is a Florida Scrub-Jay, a highly social member of the crow family. As the jay gathers the peanuts surrounding the doll’s feet, it hops in a semi-circle from the doll’s rear to its smiling face. Mouth full of peanuts, the jay lifts its head. It finds itself eye to eye with the troll and jumps straight into the air before fluttering backward.

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Children Imagine their Science Futures in an Archbold Art Project

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Author: Dustin Angell

What did you want to be when you were a child? Did you ever dress up and pretend to be an astronaut, police officer, or maybe the President? This summer, campers at Archbold Biological Station in Venus, Florida pictured their future science careers during an original arts project called #MyScienceFuture. For more than 100 children attending Archbold’s Ecology Summer Camp sessions, this multi-day project culminated in professional photo shoots and messages they wrote for themselves, their families, and the public. #MyScienceFuture combines photography appreciation, imaginative play, drawing, and creative writing as tools for learning about nature and science.

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Intern to Professor Trajectory began at Archbold

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Author: Dr. Jennifer Schafer

The first time Dr. Jennifer Schafer drove down Old State Road 8 and past the Spanish moss-covered oaks along the driveway into Archbold Biological Station, it was October 2001 and she was excited about her first job outside the Midwest. It did not take long for her to fall in love with the Florida scrub—the views from the Florida rosemary scrub patches, the sunsets over pines and palmettos, and the high level of endemism—species not seen anywhere else in the world. Eighteen years later, she is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Winthrop University in South Carolina and a Research Affiliate at Archbold, focusing on studies of plant ecology. And now, when she drives down Old State Road 8, she feels like she’s coming home.

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Hitchhiking Lizards

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Author: Amanda West

Florida’s warm winters make it an ideal place for non-native reptiles to survive when transplanted here.  When a new species gains a foothold in south Florida, it may continue spreading northward, a process known as ‘secondary dispersal’.  In March, Archbold Biological Station researchers caught a small lizard making just such a move.
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Minty Fresh Conservation

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Author: Stephanie Koontz

In conservation sometimes rare plants and animals need a little boost in numbers to help populations in the wild rebound or remain stable. For plants, this is typically done by directly sowing seeds or by collecting seeds or stems from plants in the wild, growing them up in a greenhouse, and then re-planting them into their natural habitat. These translocations can be to new sites, where the habitat is right, or to existing populations in the wild. The Plant Ecology Program at Archbold Biological Station has successfully conducted three translocations of one of the rarest mints on our planet, Garrett’s Mint (Dicerandra christmanii), found only in Highlands County, Florida. “Through these efforts, we hope to keep this unique little mint around for generations to enjoy”, exclaims Program Director Eric Menges.

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Queen of Red Hill

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Written by Hilary Swain, Jennifer Brown (Into Nature Films), and Betsie Rothermel

Archbold Biological Station has a new leading lady. She is the star of the film, ‘Queen of Red Hill,’ just released online at Archbold’s Vimeo and Youtube channels. Her name is Number 21, that is, Gopher Tortoise 21. At 60+ years old, she is one of the ‘grande dames’ of the Gopher Tortoise community living on the Red Hill at Archbold. She landed her role, vividly portraying her sandy, underground realm, because her story is Archbold’s story. She is emblematic of a tale told throughout wild Florida – loss of home, survival, and eventual recovery. Continue reading →

The Abduction of Tortoise #1721 (Part I)

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Her Narrow Escape:  On Tuesday 8th November 2016, while our country was holding national elections, Gopher Tortoise #1721 was grazing along the entrance drive to Archbold Biological Station in Venus, Florida. She was sporting a painted “1721” on her shell, for easy observation, and also had a small transmitter glued to her shell—so Archbold scientists could monitor her whereabouts.

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Not All that Glitters is Nectar

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There’s incredible beauty in nature; often you just have to get on your hands and knees to see it. While working at Archbold Biological Station, I often took walks that required me to step around a large puddle. It was probably because I was too preoccupied with not getting wet that it took me two months to realize that I had been tiptoeing over my favorite plants in the world: carnivorous plants. Continue reading →

Searching for Scrub-Jays

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It’s a cold, windy morning at Archbold. The sun has not yet risen and the clouds are tinted purple. I’m riding with Dr. Reed Bowman, director of Archbold’s Avian Ecology Program, on the morning of the November 2014 Florida Scrub-Jay Census. This particular census is much colder and windier than usual, and Dr. Bowman and I are chilled even in our jackets and gloves. We know that finding the jays is going to be tough in this weather. Our mission is to locate all members of 18 scrub-jay families, using only a truck, binoculars, a notebook, and a jar of peanuts. In total, the census team is trying to locate over 200 birds in 85 families, all in one day!

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Controlled Chaos

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When I got back to my room yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to find my face covered in black soot. My eyes still stung from the  smoke and my cheeks felt slightly stiff from so many tears drying on them under the intense heat of fire. I put down my camera, which had been damaged by either smoke or heat, and took off my blackened Nomex jacket, which smelled strongly of burnt palmetto. I had participated in my first controlled burn.  Continue reading →