Authors: Laura Reed and Betsie Rothermel

Just before Christmas, Archbold Herpetology Program staff were happy to assist in returning a rehabilitated Eastern Indigo Snake to the wild. After being found badly injured in September in a densely populated area of Highlands County, the snake arrived at Swamp Girl Adventures Reptile Rehabilitation on September 24. Rehabilitator Kim Titterington remembers, “The snake arrived with traumatic injuries to his body, scabs and fresh scar tissue from what may have been an encounter with lawn equipment. The injuries were healing fairly well, but the scar tissue was tight and dry, constricting his midsection.” The snake was also dehydrated and unable to hunt and eat enough food to maintain a healthy body weight while healing.

Every individual Eastern Indigo Snake is important for survival of the species. As Archbold’s Director of Herpetology, Betsie Rothermel, explains, “Eastern Indigos have been extirpated from some parts of their former range, such as the Florida Panhandle, and are declining in most other areas as urbanization reduces their upland habitats. Though the southern Lake Wales Ridge region is still home to relatively healthy populations, their future is by no means secure given future projections of human population growth and development.” Thus, Eastern Indigos are federally designated as Threatened and protected in Florida.

Titterington and staff went to work to save this snake, providing it with fluids, antibiotics, and lots and lots of food. During the four months of rehab, the snake gained almost 200 grams in body weight and grew almost four inches! The team confirmed he was eating, shedding, and gaining weight, then consulted with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to determine if he was fit for release, rather than live a life in captivity. All deemed the snake fit to survive and thrive in the wild, and Titterington contacted Dr. Rothermel to discuss release.

Since the snake would face too many dangers in its former home, Dr. Rothermel assisted rehabilitators in finding a safer location. After four months in rehab, the scarred but healthy Indigo traveled back to Highlands County on December 20. The group traveled deep into the scrub on protected land far from any roads and said their goodbyes. It was a bittersweet moment as they watched the snake explore his new home, then disappear into the palmettos. Kim Titterington remarked, “I never thought I’d see an Indigo come into rehabilitation. I am so thankful we could save him and release an endangered species back into the wild!”

Eastern Indigos are large animals that require large, roadless spaces to roam. They can reach more than 8 feet in length, making them the longest snake in North America. Though nonvenomous, they are top predators, hunting and consuming a wide variety of small mammals and other reptiles, including many other snakes.

Swamp Girl Adventures Reptile Rehabilitation (www.swampgirladventures.org) is a licensed wildlife rescue team focused on the care of reptiles and amphibians, as well as educating the public about wildlife through educational programs and videos. “Archbold does not have the specially trained staff and facilities needed to treat and rehabilitate injured wildlife,” explains Dr. Rothermel, “so we are very grateful for people like Kim who are dedicated to this important work.” If you come across injured reptiles or other wildlife, check this website to find a wildlife rehabilitator who can help:  https://myfwc.com/media/5423/licensedwildliferehabilitatorsbyregion.pdf

The specific release location is undisclosed because of the species’ protected status. Eastern Indigo Snakes may only be handled by individuals with appropriate scientific research or other permits. However, members of the public are encouraged to contribute sightings of Eastern Indigo Snakes to FWC’s Rare Snake Registry (https://public.myfwc.com/fwri/raresnakes/UserHome.aspx?id=) where you can also report sightings of other upland species, like Southern Hognose Snakes and Florida Pine Snakes. For more info on Eastern Indigos, visit: https://www.oriannesociety.org/about/the-eastern-indigo-snake/

Author: Laura Reed

In the Fall of 2020, Archbold Biological Station biologist Dr. Betsie Rothermel, along with Drs. Sarah Fitzpatrick and Gideon Bradburd of Michigan State University’s W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, were awarded a grant through the National Science Foundation to fund a study based at Archbold, exploring the concept of ‘genetic rescue,’ the idea that new genes can help otherwise small and inbred populations withstand environmental stress.

Dr. Sarah Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor at Kellogg Biological Station’s Department of Integrative Biology, is the principal investigator on the new project. In her presentation to Archbold’s Research Symposium on December 10, Dr. Fitzpatrick described how genetic rescue can be used to boost population sizes of endangered species by introducing genetic variation to a dwindling population. She discussed the widely known genetic rescue success story of the introduction of eight Texas Pumas to Florida in 1995 which helped overcome the inbreeding and decline of the Florida Panther population, and the resultant increase in numbers and genetic diversity. Fitzpatrick also mentioned she is working on genetic rescue in the federally threatened Florida Scrub-Jay: this was just featured in a full-length article “Rescue Mission” in the Winter 2020 Issue of National Audubon magazine.  While the Florida Panther project and a handful of other examples have been successful, Fitzpatrick concluded that genetic rescue is not a widely used strategy for population management, largely because there are still too many unknowns and possible risks when introducing new individuals to an established population.

Dr. Hilary Swain, Archbold Director noted, “We are delighted that Sarah and her co-investigator Betsie Rothermel received this highly-competitive, peer-reviewed, NSF science award. Sarah is to be commended for her success at this early stage in her career.  Just as increasing genetic knowledge brought huge benefits for human health, so will increasing genetic knowledge of plants and animals improve conservation outcomes. This research will enhance our understanding of genetic rescue as a tool for conservation: this has relevance for many of the plants and animals worldwide that are already on the edge of extinction, and also that other species do not end up in the same perilous position.”

This newly funded project at Archbold addresses the need for more testing of genetic rescue to gain acceptance as a tool for conserving biodiversity. Fitzpatrick aims to gain a better understanding of the benefits of increasing genetic diversity by performing long-term experiments on Eastern Mosquitofish. She notes that, “Using a common species like mosquitofish provides a chance to experiment and fine-tune the strategy in a way you can’t do with endangered species.”  At Archbold, several outdoor tanks have already been constructed to mimic isolated populations of fish and allow researchers to control the evolutionary history of those populations and the environments they experience. The group plans to track changes in genes and in the number of fish in each tank, ultimately hoping to improve the design, implementation, and monitoring of genetic rescue in imperiled species.

According to Fitzpatrick, “We will be monitoring the tanks for hopefully up to two more years, making this a unique long-term multigenerational dataset with lots of replication, which is the kind of study we need to improve our understanding of genetic rescue and use it for conservation purposes. This is important because genetic rescue is typically used as a last resort strategy when a population is on the brink of extinction,” continues Fitzpatrick. “But if we can show that introducing new genetic variation can speed up adaptation to environmental change—it could have major implications for conservation and management of biodiversity.”

Author: Laura Reed

The 2020 year began like any other at Archbold…research programs continuing their long-term studies, college graduates arriving to begin their internships, university professors and elementary school teachers scheduling their yearly excursions. Executive Assistant Laura Reed remembers starting her new job around this time, “My start date was in early February 2020, and I was instantly in awe of the talent and vast knowledge centered right here in Venus. There was so much to learn, and I was excited to become part of the team. Little did I know how quickly my job description would change!” Executive Director Hilary Swain was in and out of the office, traveling around the country for conferences and presentations, and Reed was happy to find out that some of her down-time could be spent with the various research programs, helping with day-to-day activities, and learning about procedures. With COVID things changed rapidly and Archbold staff had to quickly adapt. The year, while very different from previous years and certainly more challenging, ended with some successes.

2020 was a year of transition and adaptation, and Archbold Biological Station’s Science Programs found a way to thrive despite the obstacles faced. Hilary Swain noted, “Like many other businesses this year, Archbold faced massive COVID-related organizational and financial challenges. College classes from across Florida and around the world cancelled their visits, as did conferences, meetings and overnight visits from conservation groups, state agencies, and research teams. Schoolchildren visits were cancelled. They all tell us they don’t anticipate new visits until mid-2021. Our resident interns, who all decided to stay on site, were moved from their crowded dorms into small groups in Archbold’s cottage housing to increase safety. New interns and staff have to quarantine before they join research groups. Researchers are divided into small ‘siloed’ and socially distanced teams to reduce cross-program interactions. Food service ceased. Reluctantly we decided to close to the public until further notice, so we could maintain essential science and keep staff and residents safe.”

Swain continued, “Despite these disruptions, and the many limitations, I am delighted to say that our key programs have forged ahead this year. Technology saved us. I have no idea how we would have managed without Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and dedicated IT support for staff working from home. Presentations at national conferences are all held online and in December Archbold’s own online Annual Symposium was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the year’s science achievements. Archbold continued to be strongly supported by outside grants and contracts: during 2020 there were 33 active grants for research and land management at the Station and Buck Island Ranch, with several new awards during the year.” Joe Gentili, Archbold Librarian noted, “Archbold research has added 29 scientific publications to its database to date this year, and there will be more to come when final annual entries are completed. These publications helped the Archbold Library reach a significant milestone in 2020: after eight decades of published research, the 2500^th publication. Many of these publications are available to the public through ARCHBIB, Archbold’s online database, with older publications still being added:  www.archbold-station.org/html/datapub/pub/archbib/search.cfm.”

Archbold took the 2020 opportunity to conduct a deeply thoughtful strategic planning exercise which refocused the organization on increasing conservation outreach and putting more science into conservation action. The organization was successful in seeking outside support for a new Predator Prey research program, a part-time communications specialist, and a new Director of Conservation in 2021.

Regular readers of this Archbold column have learned how the Education and Communications teams adapted and grew through the pandemic—through a variety of online virtual educational opportunities that continue into 2021. Last week, the Archbold 2021 Virtual School Year website was unveiled, and several previous articles have highlighted the evolution of Archbold Education from in-person field trips to virtual scrub tours and lessons, with a total of 10 public virtual nature tours offered in addition to virtual summer Scrub Camp for students. The Communications Team transitioned Archbold’s seminar series from in-person at the Frances Archbold Hufty Learning Center to Zoom webinars in living rooms around the world. Nine Archbold staff presented seminars to audiences as far away as Europe and Hawaii! Seven Distinguished Guest Speakers participated virtually from Saskatchewan to Florida. The Archbold intern experience usually ends with a capstone seminar in the Learning Center. This year’s twelve interns were able to present their research through virtual seminars, reaching their families and former classmates as well as Archbold and local attendees. In all, Archbold offered 28 virtual seminars during 2020, as well as the virtual version of the Archbold Symposium. Most of these are available for viewing at www.youtube.com/user/ArchboldExpeditions. With these successes, virtual seminars, and maybe hybrid events combining in-person with virtual, will be the new normal for Archbold forever.

Early on Executive Assistant Laura Reed was appointed as a member of the new Communications Team, and soon became the behind-the-scenes host of nearly all the virtual presentations. She remarked, “At first it was daunting to imagine converting all of our learning and presentations to a virtual format. We just dove into the deep end and started swimming! After much trial and error (and thankfully a LOT of patience and encouragement from our online viewers), we not only stayed afloat but we’ve come out of 2020 with new skills and new audiences for our science news and conservation messages—not just across the United States, but also in other countries. This year added considerably to what I was originally hired to do, but I am fortunate to have gained a new skill set and knowledge from attending EVERY seminar as the host. The 2020 year has fundamentally changed the way Archbold works, forever.”

Archbold Biological Station remains closed to the public until further notice, although continues to provide research and educational opportunities as much and as safely as possible. Archbold staff and Board wish all readers, “A safe, happy, and healthy New Year!”

Author: Dustin Angell

The Education Program at Archbold Biological Station has some exciting news to share: Director of Education Dustin Angell and Jill Abrahamson Memorial Education Intern, Margaret Davenport have been hard at work on a new Archbold Education website, and they are proud to announce that Archbold’s Virtual Elementary School Program for 3^rd-5^th grades is now live at www.archbold-education.com!

The new site is geared toward classroom groups; however, many of its features may be used by parents and children outside of school. The site offers not only virtual guided nature tour events (available for all) and video chats with classrooms (by group reservation only), but also pre-recorded content and classroom activities. The public content features educational videos and science lessons centered on the Florida scrub habitat, as well as language arts activities linked to Archbold’s blog articles. Archbold’s original Florida Scrub Coloring Book is available for download as well. All events and resources are being offered without charge by Archbold.

Angell explains the reason for the new website, “Usually, all the local elementary schools visit us each year. The students learn about our ecological research and experience the Florida scrub firsthand. After I learned that all the field trips from the Highlands County School District were canceled this school year due to COVID-19, I contacted them to see how we could help. I knew we could meet the challenge and create multi-media content and remote learning events.”

District Science Specialist, Jennifer Reser recognizes the value of the longstanding science education partnership. She states, “The opportunities that Archbold is able to give the students of Highlands County are truly remarkable. I am very excited about the virtual trips that they are working on to continue to provide the same excellent educational experiences that we are used to. We are incredibly thankful for our partnership and the digital support that Archbold has provided in these challenging times.”

The Archbold team is quick to acknowledge that outdoor education without the outdoors is not the same for the students or the educators. However, eight months of experimenting with remote learning, like running a virtual summer camp, have taught them about the benefits and downsides of remote education. For example, virtual events reach larger audiences from a wider geographic range, and are more accessible to those with mobility issues or heat sensitivities.

Recreating the experience of student choice in nature discovery is one of the aims of Davenport’s intern project. She explains, “One of the major challenges with students visiting virtually, besides the physical disconnect from nature, is that they can’t explore nature on their own terms. They can only see whatever we point our cameras at. Presenting the students with that feeling of discovery is the main inspiration behind my “Choose Your Own Virtual Adventure: Archbold Edition.” Classes can make choices about what they want to see on the nature trail, what questions they want to ask the researchers they meet, and ultimately decide where they go on their virtual nature walk.” To accomplish this, Margaret recorded nearly 30 short video clips from the nature trail. When she video chats with classrooms, their choices will determine which videos are shown.

The 2020-2021 year is not the school year students and educators expected, but thanks to a decades long relationship between the Highlands County School District and Archbold Biological Station, our local children still have the benefit and enjoyment of combining classroom learning with real-world examples of science from their region of Florida. Explore the Archbold Education website at www.archbold-education.com.

Author: Stephanie Koontz

On Thursday, December 10, Archbold scientists, staff, colleagues, collaborators, and the public gathered around their computer screens to attend the Fifth Annual Archbold Research Symposium virtually. Like so many gatherings in 2020, the Symposium needed to adapt and go virtual, or not be held this year. “Research at Archbold has never ceased. Our staff continued to collect data in the field under tight guidelines. Visiting scientists continued to travel to Archbold, practicing social distancing rules, as well as collaborating with staff remotely to gather the data they needed,” stated Executive Director Hilary Swain. “Archbold has taken the COVID-19 pandemic very seriously and taken all necessary safety precautions, sadly closing to the public, however we worked hard to safely continue our ongoing field research.”

This year’s Symposium was no different than previous years, hosting a variety of presentations ranging from conservation of the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, to a history of archived letters written by Richard Archbold during his worldwide expeditions, to monitoring plant diversity on Buck Island Ranch, Archbold’s working cattle ranch. The Internet audience learned about monitoring for a rare plant and efforts to de-list this unique Florida Golden Aster, about new collaborations examining implications of genetic isolation for recovery of Florida Scrub-Jays and other species in landscapes with habitat fragmentation, and ongoing work resolving taxonomy of the plethora of gall wasp species native to Florida and the southeastern USA. “A benefit of the Symposium going virtual is we had the opportunity to hear from, but also reach so many people that many not have been able to attend in person in previous years,” explained Archbold co-host Stephanie Koontz. “The Symposium is usually an all-day event, with speakers and attendees traveling to Archbold to attend and participate. But going virtual opened our message to so many more people curious about Archbold, our work, and conservation of Florida ecosystems.”

In addition to many traditional, 15-minute, single project presentations, the Symposium welcomed a couple of longer sessions aimed to provide overviews from some of the core programs at Archbold. Plant Ecology Program Director, Dr. Eric Menges, gave a 30-year review of his program, highlighting trends in his research, long-term collaborations, and the multitude of next generation young scientists he has mentored over the years. Dr. Betsie Rothermel, Director of the Restoration and Herpetology Program presented the history, ongoing, and future work on the Gopher Tortoise monitoring project on Archbold’s Red Hill, one of the longest running monitoring projects on this threatened species. Dr. Reed Bowman, Director of the Avian Ecology Program introduced the audience to new technology, tracking the Florida Scrub-Jay to better understand social interactions within family groups and neighbors and how the surrounding landscape may influence these movements. Finally, Director of Education, Dustin Angell shared clips from many of his virtual activities developed and aired online over the past several months, and the challenges his program had to overcome to continue to share wild Florida in an isolated world.

“It is critical that Archbold continues to spread and share the message of science and conservation of Florida’s native and working landscapes in a time when it is easy to be distracted, but while there is also a huge demand for quality online science,” remarks Swain. “Hosting the Symposium this year demonstrated that Archbold is moving forward and will continue to do the hard work needed to protect these lands and waters for generations to come.” If you missed, would like share, or re-watch any Symposium presentation, they can be found on Archbold’s Facebook page and YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/ArchboldExpeditions/videos

Author: Erin Stewart

Describing scientific names, Archbold intern Erin Stewart says that they could just as well be termed, “A confusing amalgamation of Greek and Latin words with a sprinkling of surnames thrown in. Biology students are taught that scientific names aid clarity and specificity; however, memorizing them inevitably presents a massive headache come exam time.” While the use of consistent scientific names for species may aid in the communication of research findings across countries and languages, it can present a barrier to communication between scientists and members of the public. Yet, studied closely, scientific names provide layers of meaning and history. Learning to ‘decode’ such meanings can improve both retention and appreciation of these names.

In some cases, the scientific name of a species actually sounds quite similar to its common name. For example, the first half (the Genus) of the name Gopherus polyphemus recalls the ‘gopher’ in Gopher Tortoise. Meanwhile, the second half of the name (species) references Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant of Greek mythology. Though not one-eyed, gopher tortoises are certainly one of the larger animals frequently spotted in southeastern habitats.

Oftentimes, the connection between a species’ scientific name and common name is less obvious and a closer examination of its Greek and Latin roots is necessary. For instance, the name Eryngium cuneifolium probably means little to anyone but the most avid botanists of central Florida. However, encoded in the second half of the name are the Latin roots cuneus, meaning ‘wedge,’ and folium, meaning ‘leaf.’ This links directly to the common name of the species:  Wedgeleaf Button Snakeroot. The first half of the scientific name, Eryngium, derives from the Greek and Latin terms for sea holly, which is the group of plants to which the Wedgeleaf Button Snakeroot belongs.

In other cases, the roots of a scientific name connect not a species’ common name, but to its appearance. The name for Florida Scrub-Jays, Aphelocoma coerulescens, illustrates this point. The first half, Aphelocoma, translates to ‘simple hair.’ This references the fact that, unlike the closely related Blue Jay and Steller’s Jay, scrub-jays lack a feathered head crest. Dr. Reed Bowman, director of Archbold Avian Ecology program added, “Yes, Aphelocoma means simple hair, but it may also refer to the lack of banding in the feathers which is common in many other jays.” Thus, not only does this term describe scrub-jays, but it also places them in the context of their evolutionary relatives. The second half of the name, coerulescens,means dark blue or green—think of the color sky blue or cerulean. This refers to the bluish-gray colors that characterize Florida Scrub-Jays, and other scrub-jays in general.

Sometimes, the scientific name of a species does not contain Greek or Latin roots but is derived from the surname of the researcher who first described the species, or in honor of another prominent researcher in the field, or an individual who supported the work. The ant species Formica archboldi, for instance, is named after the late founder of Archbold Biological Station, Richard Archbold. First described by T.C. Schneirla in 1943, the revised description of the ant published in 1950 notes, “This subspecies is named in honor of Richard Archbold, the owner of the Archbold Biological Station, who not only encouraged Dr. Schneirla in a study of the ants of the Station but who showed a special interest in the habits of this particular ant.”  Richard Archbold has the honor of having more than 100 species named in his honor, or in recognition of the Archbold Biological Station that he established, many of which are listed on the Archbold web site.  (https://www.archbold-station.org/html/aboutus/r_archbold/ra_animals.html) .

Erin Stewart added, “Though they may initially appear incomprehensible and hard-to-pronounce, careful consideration of scientific names can prove revealing in terms of the history, appearance, and common names of a species. It can even provide some humor, as when you start thinking of scrub jays as ‘simple-haired’ birds.”

Despite the value in knowing and using scientific names, is it not reasonable to expect everyone to learn them. Thus, scientists must work to decode their language when speaking to non-scientists to avoid obscuring important information behind jargon and losing the attention of listeners. A discussion of the etymology of a scientific name is a great place to start.

Author: Laura Reed

Have you learned about Archbold Biological Station’s mission from reading the weekly articles in the News-Sun? Archbold’s mission is to build and share the scientific knowledge needed to protect the life, lands, and waters of the heart of Florida and beyond. Archbold scientists work daily to build scientific knowledge through careful research and share it through scientific publications and presentations. The Education Program works to share knowledge with children through field trips, summer camp, and with the public through outreach and presentations, and now virtual events. But how can the local community, the general public, gain access to that knowledge and apply it to life in Highlands County?

Archbold had presented information online through its website and various social media outlets for years, but something more was needed for the local community.  In 2016, Deborah Pollard, Director of Philanthropy worked with the local newspaper to start a series focused on the work of Archbold. Pollard recalls, “I thought it was important to share what we learn here, how that impacts the residents of Highlands County, and what can be learned from our science to help protect our special piece of Florida. Many people know something about Archbold but were unfamiliar with its broad mission or how Archbold’s science applies to aspects of the life, lands, and waters of the region.”

Highlands County resident and longtime friend of Archbold Jane Hancock volunteered to connect Archbold with her associates at the Highlands News-Sun who immediately accepted the collaboration. The idea was to inform Highlands County residents of Archbold’s interesting research about the Lake Wales Ridge scrub, and surrounding ranchland ecosystems, and to promote conservation of our incredible area. The first article about Archbold’s work was featured nearly four years ago, on January 6, 2017: ‘The Mysterious World of Ants,’ which focused on the work of Entomologist Dr. Mark Deyrup. Since then, Deyrup has been featured in a total of 13 articles, most describing types of insects found at and around the Station. Over the next four years, 62 different Archbold staff or visiting scientists contributed content, leading to the publication of 200 articles! For example, there have been 33 articles on plant ecology and 4 in the newest 2020 category: ‘online virtual interactions.’ Most of the contributed content has been from staff, with Director of Education Dustin Angell leading the way, involved with 21 articles. Archbold also has some great photographers on staff and among its visitors and their photographs have added to the beauty and unique value of the articles.

Executive Director Dr. Hilary Swain said, “Of course Archbold is such a bunch of scientists, we carefully fact-check each article, and that’s a lot of work.”  She added, “Nonetheless, I am always touched when someone in the community comes up to me—maybe in the supermarket or at the gas station, and usually when I am wearing an Archbold T-shirt—and says, ‘I really enjoy those articles about Archbold in the newspaper, it’s so interesting what you all do down there, I look forward to reading them every week.’ I smile and often get the opportunity for a nice extended chat, meanwhile thinking to myself—this surely makes it all worthwhile.”

Archbold’s Executive Assistant Laura Reed took over the role of article coordinator in February 2020 (among her many other responsibilities!), just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing major changes for Archbold research and education programs. Reed explains, “Part of my job is to encourage staff to contribute content towards articles based on their research, which can be challenging for them during busy times. Though this year has been a struggle with a new way of working, our amazing Archbold team came through with facts, quotes, and superb photographs. I am so proud that Archbold and Highlands News-Sun have never missed a week in 200 articles! Thank you to the News-Sun for all their assistance and support on this front.”

Have you read all 200 articles? If you think you have missed earlier ones, you are in luck. Reed shares, “After articles have been published in the News Sun, later on they will also be posted on Archbold’s ‘Scrub Blog’ (https://archboldedublog.org/) as well as linked off the Archbold website’s news page (https://www.archbold-station.org/html/events/news.cfm). Happy reading!”

Author: Deborah Pollard

Archbold Biological Station is expanding the scope of its current research. With the help of a generous donor, Archbold is re-establishing a predator-prey research program. This exciting partnership represents one of the steps Archbold is taking to help Keep Florida Wild. Led by conservation ecologist Joe Guthrie the Predator-Prey Program will couple scientific research and conservation efforts to better understand and protect wide-ranging species, such as the Florida Black Bear and the Florida Panther, and the habitats on which they rely. Guthrie has worked with Archbold in the past and returns in November from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia.

A native Kentuckian, Guthrie studied Florida Black Bears for his master’s thesis at Archbold and on the surrounding conservation sites and working farms and ranches as a student of wildlife ecologist and conservationist Dr. David Maehr at the University of Kentucky. Together, Maehr, Guthrie, and a team which included the late citrus grower and rancher, Mason Smoak, used GPS radio-collars to track the Highlands/Glades Black Bear population across the region, documenting their movements, habitat preferences, social interactions, reproduction, and food habits. Guthrie focused on the impacts of existing and newly planned roads on bear movements and mortality, to inform conservation needs across the South-Central Florida landscape.

The collaborative research inspired a series of conservation expeditions and documentary films highlighting efforts to connect, protect, and restore a 16 million-acre ecological wildlife corridor, known as the ‘Florida Wildlife Corridor,’ through Florida. The Expedition’s 2019 film The Last Green Thread was featured at the D.C. Environmental Film Festival, Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, CO, and at Archbold’s February ‘On the Lawn’ event held in Lake Placid, FL. An upcoming Florida Wildlife Corridor short film, The Wild Divide, will premiere in January 2021 with a traveling roadshow across Florida, including a screening at Archbold. Guthrie’s collaborations with the Florida Wildlife Corridor and the Florida Wild initiatives will continue through his research at the Station.

Guthrie shared, “I’m so excited to return to Highlands County, which holds such special meaning for me. This is a working landscape, which is where I’ve always wanted to be as a researcher. I can’t wait to get back in the field and get to work.”

The Predator-Prey Program will build on the extensive work of Archbold’s founders. As the Station’s first Director of Research, Dr. James N. Layne conducted studies on nearly all mammals known to Archbold, including the Florida Panther. Dr. Layne’s archive, which is maintained at Archbold and includes his many published manuscripts, data, and field notes, forms an invaluable foundation for the new Predator-Prey Program. In recent years, female Florida Panthers have been documented moving north of the Caloosahatchee River, a breakthrough long sought among biologists and conservationists concerned about the survival of the species. Archbold’s scientists will utilize a variety of methods and technologies such as remote cameras to expand monitoring the community of mammal species, predators and prey, with the intent to study how changes in top carnivores might change the ecosystem.

Author: Laura Reed

Archbold recently received a special visit from renowned visual artist and environmental advocate, Deborah Mitchell. She arrived with a specific plan in mind: to showcase the Florida Scrub and Central Florida ranchlands, and to conduct film interviews with Archbold researchers to educate and promote conservation of Florida’s rapidly declining wild spaces through her ongoing project, Wild Observations.

Her artwork has featured many elements of the Everglades ecosystem, including the Headwaters of the Everglades, the vast lands and waters draining south to Lake Okeechobee.  A 2020 quote on Deborah’s website from former Senator Bob Graham explains her role, “The salvation of the American Everglades is dependent of the awareness of Americans and citizens of the world to the global importance of the Glades and their willingness to support its restoration. Exposure through art has been and continues to be an important means of providing this awareness. Through her artistry Deborah Mitchell has devoted her talent and love of the Everglades to its restoration and has contributed to the goal being within a decade of realization. On behalf of this and future generations of world citizens, thank you Deborah for your contribution to our capacity to experience and be sustained by the unique qualities of a rejuvenated Everglades.”

As part of her interest in the Headwaters, Deborah Mitchell is no stranger to Archbold. Her work features photo-based collages and paintings drawn from her travels in the Everglades and beyond. Earlier this year, Mitchell’s installation at the Miami International Airport, ‘Wild Observations in American Flyways’ included six pieces directly influenced by her time spent at Archbold. The exhibition, described as ‘both an ecological and cultural study of observations occurring in our wild places’ was on view from March 12 – July 14th, 2020 in the North Terminal, and now can be viewed at www.debmitchellart.com. When Archbold Biological Station safely reopens, it will host her exhibit for the public, free of charge. 

During her latest visit in October, Mitchell focused on several endangered and threatened species of the Lake Wales Ridge. Over the course of two days, Mitchell and Archbold’s Director of Education Dustin Angell documented birds including two woodpeckers, Florida Caracara, Florida Scrub-Jays, the flower Scrub Blazing Star, Ambrosia beetles, and the Rosemary Bald habitat. Mitchell and Angell recorded 17 topics ranging from ranchlands to museum type natural history collections and filmed special field interviews with Archbold researchers Dr. Mark Deyrup, Dr. Reed Bowman, and Dr. Hilary Swain.

Mitchell shared, “I believe that everything is connected, and am energized by participating in field research to understand the value of biodiversity and what it means in our changing world. My approach is both scientific and intuitive, meaning that the research is based on facts, but my interpretation is inspired by my relationship to the place.”

Now back in her studio, Mitchell uses her journal sketches and photographs to begin the process of weaving art and science into a visual tapestry at once intricate and approachable to the public. Archbold is looking forward to hosting a virtual seminar by Mitchell, to share this and her other work at 3:30pm on January 28th, 2021. More information about how to join this online seminar will be available at www.archbold-station.org.

Art and science may seem an unusual union at first glance but appealing to all sectors of the public audience is essential to spreading the science and conservation message. Archbold Executive Director Hilary Swain explains, “At Archbold, we are reaching new and wider audiences by partnering with artists as science and conservation ambassadors. Deborah Mitchell is one such ambassador. Her careful attention to detail and her ability to meld complex scientific understanding with interpretation of nature is inspiring. Deborah infuses her artistic work with science, communicating the importance of sustaining our natural world.”

Author: Reed Bowman

There may be few people who know the back roads and trails of Avon Park Air Force Range (APAFR) as well as Michelle Dent. For the last 21 years, Michelle led the monitoring program for Florida Scrub-Jays at APAFR. With only the help of a few seasonal assistants, Michelle trapped and banded all the jays, searched, and found all their nests, and watched the young birds fledge and find mates of their own. She has a genealogist’s knowledge of the jay’s families and lineages—and she cares for their welfare like a doting grandmother.

In a recent interview, Michelle admitted that she did not know jobs like hers existed until after college. She received her BA in Sociology from Principia College in 1992 and worked in related fields until 1997. That summer she interned with the Zoological Society of Milwaukee County monitoring grassland birds, including searching for their nests. Her love of natural history was now fully uncorked and realizing that careers were available in this field, she applied for additional internships. She arrived at Archbold Biological Station in 1998, working with Dr. Reed Bowman, Director of Archbold’s Avian Ecology Program on his long-term study of Florida Scrub-Jays in suburban habitats. Michelle’s independent project compared the behavior of jay fledglings between the suburbs and native scrub, as the young jays began exploring away from the nest. Dr. Bowman recalled, “It was a timely project that showed some really interesting differences in the behavioral development of jays in these two different habitats.” While she was a research intern, and before her internship ended, a position became available on the APAFR jay project and Michelle took it, beginning her long career working for Archbold on the jays at APAFR—a career she could barely dream of just a few years earlier.

Over her years shepherding the jays at APAFR, she watched the population grow and fall, but learned how to best manage the habitat for their success. She has led groups from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s volunteer group Ridge Rangers, to implement some of that management at APAFR. She has also been a stalwart advocate for jays and helped create and develop the citizen science program JayWatch, which trains citizen volunteers to monitor jays on public lands across the state. She has attended every annual Florida Scrub-Jay festival, manning booths there and at other festivals and fairs, speaking to other groups, all of which has helped raise the image of scrub-jays as an icon of Florida. For several years, she was the Chair of the Lakes Wales Ridge Working Group, influencing everyone and all the participating government agencies and non-profits that contribute to the protection of the ridge. She always continued her professional growth, eventually earning her MS degree from Antioch New England Graduate School in 1998.

Michelle has also been an intrinsic member of the Archbold community. Michelle and Lauren Gilson, another Archbold tech working at APAFR, initiated the annual Christmas Silent Auction which Michelle has kept alive for 15 years, raising thousands of dollars for support for children to attend Archbold’s Summer Camp. Dozens of children who might not otherwise except for these awards, have experienced the joy of wading in a seasonal pond and learning about the wonders of scrub!

Michelle’s last day at APAFR was Oct. 30. After 22 years at Archbold Michelle reminisced, “Archbold was a great place to work. There is so much cumulative knowledge amongst the researchers working there, it really was a privilege to observe and be a part of. It is inspiring how much people are invested in the research they conduct and how visiting researchers come back year after year. Archbold is like an extended family and I will really miss being a part of it.”  Michelle did not want a big parting shindig but wanted to go birding with her co-workers and friends at Highlands Hammock State Park—the wish of a true naturalist! Everyone had a socially distanced lunch and cupcakes. We might have had a cake, but Michelle is the best cake maker around and you can’t ask someone to bake their own going away cake! Michelle and her husband are heading for drier climes, building a house in New Mexico. She goes armed with a bagful of new field guides, eager to learn the natural history of her new home. We all wish her the best.

Author: Megan Selva

For the past few months, at Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch, research assistants and interns have been diligently working to collect soil and vegetation samples to create a detailed map of soil phosphorus on Buck Island Ranch, funded through a grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. This new project at Buck Island Ranch is a collaborative effort between Archbold, University of Florida, and Cornell University with the goal of contributing to the reduction of phosphorus flowing downstream.

What is legacy phosphorus?

To understand this issue, it helps to start with a history of Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch, operated as a ranch from the early 1900s. During the 1950s numerous ditches were connected to the newly constructed Harney Pond Canal, which bisects the Ranch on its way downstream to Lake Okeechobee. This enabled rapid drainage, changing the timing, frequency, and intensity of flow events off the Ranch. The same time heralded the beginning of a worldwide transformation in agriculture as fertilizers became available post-WW2. Fertilizers made ranching more profitable on the nutrient-poor sandy soils of Florida. In the period between the late 1940s through the 1980s, extensive use of fertilizers, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, resulted in build-up of phosphorus (or, the ‘legacy P’ issue) in ranchland soils that continues to affect water quality today. Since 1986, when reduced P applications were first recommended, P application has declined markedly throughout the watershed and is now regulated, but the legacy of previous fertilizer P applications in soils is still widespread. Today’s Best Management Practices for grazing lands, which are currently under another major review, aim to ensure that no more P fertilizer is applied than absolutely needed.

Buck Island Ranch is just 10,500 acres of the total ~1 million acres of ranchlands located in the 2.6 million-acre headwaters of the Everglades, the lands and waters that drain south into Lake Okeechobee. Even though P loads from cattle pastures are low relative to other land uses (on a per-acre basis) the large acreage of ranches in the watershed makes them, cumulatively, a significant contributor to overall P loads. Therefore, ranches have been a focus for improved P control. The challenge is that ranches are a ‘non-point source’ of P: with sheet flow of shallow surface water across the ranchlands under high water conditions, together with vast and complex ditching and drainage networks, so there is no readily identifiable ‘point’ source location that can be easily targeted to reduce P loading.

What can we do about legacy soil phosphorus?

Water management practices that increase retention-detention of drainage waters on cattle pastures are a potential solution to reducing P loads. Since 2005, Archbold has been working on examples of these ‘Dispersed Water Management’ practices with state agencies. This started with the voluntary program, the Florida Ranchland Environmental Services Project, and transitioned to the Northern Everglades-Payment for Environmental Services program, both offered by the South Florida Water Management District. Ranchers are contracted to provide water management—either water retention or nutrient P removal.  These programs, along with multiple other projects of state and federal agencies, are designed to mitigate problems of water quality and quantity to Lake Okeechobee. 

With recent funding from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Agro-ecology research program collected an intensive grid of soil samples across Buck Island Ranch to make a map of soil P levels. Vegetation samples were collected at the same locations. More than 1,400 soil samples and 47 deep core soil samples were taken during June to October, to be processed in laboratories at Buck Island Ranch, the University of Florida, and Cornell University. Deep core soil samples are about 40” in length are used in this project to determine the amount of P in 6 inches increments of the deep core. Research assistants and interns spent 4-5 hours a day collecting 20-30 samples in the summer heat using trucks, ATVs or by foot to get to sampling locations. Intern Scott Dai says, “As the self-appointed ‘Soil Auger’, my hands were caked in mud every time I did fieldwork for this project. It’ll be cool knowing our hard work will be used by both ranchers and agroecologists.”

Finally, on October 15, Anna Odell, Buck Island Ranch research intern finished grinding the last set of vegetation samples. The day before, Megan Selva, research assistant, finished weighing sieved soil samples. Megan states, “This was a challenging project and a fight to get as many samples collected as possible before the rainy season made sampling sites inaccessible. We were fortunate to have three interns, research staff, and ranch staff to finish the sampling successfully.” The samples were organized by Alan Rivero, research assistant, and shipped to the University of Florida, for detailed soil content analysis, and to Cornell University for soil isotope analysis.

After the soil P map is made, the next step is to plant harvestable forages in these areas so that plants can start to take up soil P and we can harvest the plants to remove P from these areas.

After the sample analyses are completed, Archbold will build a detailed soil P map for Buck Island Ranch. Dr. Betsey Boughton, Research Director at Buck Island Ranch added: “This will provide insights as to how patchy legacy soils are on a typical ranch and help us identify past management practices might explain higher levels of soil P in some locations. Then we will focus our efforts on areas of higher soil P.  The next step is to plant harvestable forages in these areas, so that plants can start to take up soil P and we can harvest the plants to remove P from these areas.”

Author: Shefali Azad

Nowadays scientific research programs at Archbold Biological Station collect massive amounts of data daily through various automated and physical means, as well as all the ‘legacy data’ that have been collected dating back to1941. Where does all the data go? How do scientists make sense of all these data when it is time to analyze, report, and learn something from the results? The fieldwork aspect of research has been well-documented, but none of those studies would be possible or fruitful without careful data management and organization.

Shefali Azad has been Assistant Data Manager at Archbold since January 2018. She reflects, “Technicians collect observations in the field, scientists process this into meaningful statistics, we manage weather stations and track animals’ locations. My job is to organize these data—I copy data to databases, back data up to servers, and create dashboards to view data in real time.” Once data are organized, they become available for future studies. For example, a collaborator could request weather data from 2012-2016 along with soil quality from the same period: Azad can quickly retrieve the information from the databases and compile it for them. Increasingly she helps scientists post their data online when a project is published.

Not surprisingly, Azad has a background in biology. After studying biotech engineering and wildlife biology in college, she says she took a data management position at Archbold for a few different reasons: “For one, I had picked up general computer coding skills with the engineering and graduate degrees. For another, I have a broad understanding of ecology that helps me understand the needs of the ecologists that I work with. Another more practical reason was that I had spent a couple years after grad school moving from one temporary fieldwork job to another, and I decided it was time to apply to jobs in my field that were more stable.”

Azad joined Archbold’s Data and Geographic System (GIS) program in 2018, which is mostly staffed by women, although computer science is currently generally a male-dominated field. She explains, “Did you know that computer science used to be a woman-dominated field? Back in the 1960s, designing the hardware was considered difficult and prestigious ‘men’s work.’ Programmers were needed but coding was considered lower-skill number-crunching, or ‘women’s work’.” The tide changed in the 1970s with the invention of the personal computer and the business boom in Silicon Valley, and men took over the software side of computer science as well as hardware engineering. Current Archbold Director Hilary Swain commented, “I remember exactly this situation; when I was an undergraduate in the mid-1970s nearly all my computer scientist friends were women, busily coding on mainframes and some still using punchcards! That dates me. Then the first PCs came out and everything changed.” 

As a woman in science, Azad feels it is especially important to share her experience to encourage other females to follow their own paths, whether the field is traditionally male or female-dominated. When asked what traits a young girl might possess to indicate an aptitude for computer science, Azad says the expected qualities apply: a basic understanding and liking of computers, puzzle solving, and good organizational skills. She adds, “Young girls are often criticized for certain ‘problematic’ behaviors that are actually a boon: If you’re ‘nitpicky’ it means you’re detail-oriented, if you’re ‘pessimistic’ it means you can identify where a workflow will break down. I’m personally on the ADHD spectrum and find that switching between varied tasks works beautifully with my mental health. And finally, you have to work with a variety of people to understand their needs, so developing good (and patient) communication skills helps.”

Dr. Swain concluded, “One of the inspirational aspects of having Shefali at Archbold is how easily she bridges the world of biology and computing. I like how she points out there is a role for everyone in science, for all technical and personal skill sets. Science is a big tent of opportunities and I would encourage young people, especially women who may have been turned off science, to consider the variety of opportunities that may be open for them. They may be more welcome and valued in the tent than they ever realized.”

Author: Stephanie Koontz

One major thrust of scientific research from Archbold Biological Station focuses of the flora and fauna of the Lake Wales Ridge, which runs from northern Glades County, through the middle of Highlands and Polk counties, and up into parts of Lake, Orange, and Osceola counties. However, much of the work done by scientists here is applicable to other ecosystems and much of the knowledge gained at Archbold has trickled off the ridge, providing valuable information for management, monitoring, and protection for many of Florida’s valuable natural areas. Sharing knowledge is a key component of science.

In early October, research assistant Stephanie Koontz from the Plant Ecology Program at Archbold and Plant Conservation Officer Houston Snead from Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens shared their knowledge and experience with Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) staff searching for the plant, Florida Hartwrightia. Florida Hartwrightia is not state listed as an endangered or threatened plant in Florida, however, historic records suggest drastic population declines and probable local extirpations, most likely due to habitat alteration and loss. Based on records complied by FNAI, this species once extended from Highlands County, north to Nassau County and up into southern Georgia. However, many of these records have not been confirmed since they were first documented, most prior to the 1990’s. FNAI staff are currently leading surveys to update many of these historic occurrences which may be used to modify this species status to threatened or even endangered in the state of Florida.

Staff from Archbold and the Jacksonville Zoo had originally joined up in 2018, designing and implementing a protocol to identify and search suitable habitats for Florida Hartwrightia in Highlands County. “We have done this for two seasons now,” explains Koontz, “and we have searched several historic occurrences for Florida Hartwrightia, some with success in locating populations, other searches were not as fortunate. But this has helped us identify specific attributes within the habitat where Florida Hartwrightia tends to grow.” Florida Hartwrightia prefers wet habitats, but not too wet. “The preferred habitat seems to require water, but not standing, stagnant water. Rather a slow flowing source just above or below the soil surface. This type of flow is typical of a narrow habitat margin known as seepage slopes, where water is literally seeping slowly out of the ground through Florida’s sandy soils from higher to lower elevations,” describes Koontz. “When we marked the locations of individual plants on a map, the occurrences weave their way along like a ribbon between slightly higher, drier habitats and lower, wetter habitats.”

In addition to discussions, emails and sharing of reports and data, Koontz and Snead were able to join FNAI staff in the field to search for Florida Hartwrightia in October 2020. Several element occurrences are located in northeast Florida within the boundaries of John Bethea and Cary State Forests and Bayard and Black Creek Ravines Conservation Areas. The crew explored for three days, through wet forests and along wetland margins, touching many leaves that looked similar, but did not belong to Florida Hartwrightia. “When not in flower, this plant lives as a cluster of leaves on the ground. These leaves feel tacky unlike other look-alikes which are smooth. It is easiest to locate this species when it is in flower, as it sends up a stem ~4 feet tall with pale purple flower clusters. This is much easier to spot above the shorter palmettos, grasses, and oaks,” describes Koontz. On the second day, the crew struck gold, as a large flowering population was first located by Snead. “We estimated more than 1,000 plants, most of which were in full flower,” describes Snead. “And sure enough, slightly up hill from this population, was a pond where water must be slowly seeping through the soil, providing the ideal habitat for Florida Hartwrightia.” This is the story of many plants. Many populations simply have never been documented, or documented well, but when the right conditions combine, they flourish.

Author: Mary Margaret Hardee

Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch is a large scale working cattle ranch in south central Florida, in the Headwaters of the Everglades. Buck Island Ranch is classified as a cow/calf operation, meaning the main goal is to maintain a breeding herd of cows that produce a calf annually. Buck Island Ranch isn’t home to just cattle alone! The ranch also serves as a natural wildlife corridor and sanctuary for biodiversity. There are documented species lists of records more than 450 plant species, 170 birds, 34 reptiles, 30 mammals, 19 amphibians, and 16 fish. If you have had the opportunity to take a buggy ride at the Ranch, depending on what time of year you were there, you might have noticed the baby calves with the mother cows, what are called cow-calf ‘pairs’). Have you wondered where the calves go from there? What happens between the pasture and the plate? Buck Island Ranch assistant Mary Margaret Hardee explains, “There are many different segments of the beef industry—Cow/Calf, Backgrounder, Feedlot, Harvest/Processing facilities, Retail, and then finally the consumer.”

The Buck Island Ranch operations crew weans calves typically at 6 months of age and at roughly 400 lbs. When the calves are weaned the crew sorts calves based on sex, quality, and weight. After the weaning period is over, calves from the Ranch are shipped to either a backgrounder or directly to a feedlot. A handful of promising heifers from the calf crop are retained or kept on the ranch to be put back into the ranch’s breeding stock. That is a very typical management practice for cow/calf operations.

A backgrounding operation is the ‘middle man’ between weaned calves and feedlots. They feed and care for the recently weaned calves to enter into the feedlots. Once the calves reach an average of 700-800 lbs. they are ready to enter a feedlot setting. This is where they will be finished. Finished weight is typically 1,350 lbs. In order to hit this target weight, they are fed a variety of different highly formulized rations that meet their nutritive requirements. Starter rations focus more on high forage, whereas finishing rations focus more on high energy concentrations.

For many decades most cow calf producers in Florida have had their cattle shipped out west to be finished: 65% of the cattle on feed in the Unites States are located in Texas, Nebraska and Kansas. In 2015 a handful of cattle producers, Florida Cattle Ranchers recognized the opportunity to return this part of the process to Florida, as it was decades ago. The goal was to raise and finish cattle in the state of Florida, producing Homegrown Beef from Pasture to Plate. However, according to Buck Island Ranch Manager, Gene Lollis, “Ranching is more than simply providing beef ‘from a pasture to a plate.’ It is about balancing production practices with our natural surroundings.” The implications of this shift to full Florida production are far-reaching:  supporting the local Florida economy, conserving natural lands and biodiversity, and even saving taxpayer money by reducing transportation and wear and tear on roads. To find out more about the Florida Cattle Ranchers and building a sustainable Florida, visit www.floridacattleranchers.com.

The development of the in-state market will allow the Florida producers to tell consumers the story of their ranches and their role in conservation as well as beef production.  Contributing towards this group’s goal,  Buck Island Ranch now backgrounds many calves at Usher Cattle Company and finishes at Quincey Cattle Company, both in Chiefland, northwest Florida. Once calves have reached their finished weight they are then shipped to a harvesting facility, FM Meat Products in Fort McCoy, Florida. This meets the Florida Department of Agriculture definition of a Fresh From Florida product.

Harvesting facilities bring in live animals and, in the most humane way possible, process them into the meat you buy in the grocery store or order off the menu at your favorite restaurant or fast food joint. Processing plants always operate with an agent from the Unites States Department of Agriculture to ensure safe, quality, and humane practices are in place. Nothing is wasted when an animal is harvested. Mary Margaret Hardee shared, “Here are some fun facts of things that are made from beef byproducts of which you might not be aware. From the bones, horns and hooves we get things like buttons, piano keys, adhesives, and cellophane. From fats and fatty acids we get things like chewing gum, soap, paint, cosmetics, and tires. From the intestines we get sausage casings, surgical sutures, and tennis racquet strings. From the hide and hair we get things like clothing, textiles, luggage, insulation and felt.”

From Pasture to Plate, and adhesives to insulation, Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch balances a successful working cattle operation with sustainable practices and environmental stewardship to preserve Florida’s ranching legacy while also protecting its lands and waters. 

Author: Rebecca Windsor

4:00 am wakeups are never easy, but for Avian Ecology research assistants Fabiola Baeza-Tarin and Chelsea Wisner, the reward of seeing Florida Grasshopper Sparrows makes those dark mornings worth it. With headlamps adorned, the biologists brave the clouds of mosquitoes and the soggy prairie landscape to study a rare bird endemic to Florida and one of the most endangered species in the United States. “The sparrows are very elusive and definitely prove to be a challenge while trying to work with them!” explains Baeza-Tarin. Agreeing, Wisner adds “I am always blown away by how resilient they are. They put up with a lot of our manipulations while we try to protect them.”

The sparrows at Avon Park Air Force Range had been monitored since the early 1990’s, but Archbold’s Avian Ecology Program didn’t take over until 2003. Each year, researchers estimate population size using point count surveys, during which biologists navigate through established transects to listen for and count singing birds. The population was near its peak in 1998, but over the next 4-5 years, the numbers tumbled by almost 90%. Within a few years of that decline, the populations on other protected conservation lands, such as Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area, managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, managed by the Florida Park Service, began declining. “Once we realized how dire the situation was, it was all hands on deck to try to figure out a solution,” Dr. Reed Bowman, Director of the Avian Ecology program, recalls. “All populations were declining despite intensive management efforts that had been implemented based on past research. We needed to act fast to stabilize the population and identify a cause for the decline.”

In 2002, concerned scientists from Archbold and several agencies and universities created the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow Working Group, the primary purpose of which was to collaborate on research and outline ways to save the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. “The Working Group approached the situation from all angles, coordinating work at different sites and focusing on factors that might be causing the decline,” says Wisner. “Although birds had been banded at some sites, they began banding males at all sites to increase our understanding of annual adult survival. Everyone began monitoring nests and, in 2015, installing nest cameras to study nest predators.” Unfortunately, researchers found many nests were easy targets for predators, so the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission devised a method to install fences around sparrow nests without disturbing the females. These were successful and were soon implemented at all sites. At other sites where Red Imported Fire Ants were a problem, scientists began treating nearby fire ant mounds with scalding hot water, which also increased fledgling production. “We switched our focus from simply monitoring these birds to increasing survival and reproduction in order to prevent extinction,” Dr. Bowman notes.

Currently, less than 120 Florida Grasshopper Sparrows remain across four monitored populations, two of which Archbold biologists are monitoring. Archbold continues its partnership with the Department of Defense and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by monitoring the sparrow population at Avon Park Air Force Range, and the Avian Ecology program also recently, with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, took over monitoring a population of sparrows on a private cattle ranch. “We originally thought the sparrows wouldn’t survive or nest successfully in pasture, but with the use of fences and fire ant treatments, they do just fine!” explains Baeza-Tarin. “It takes a lot of work, but it is promising to know that the sparrows can survive and prosper on active cattle ranches. It’s a big step forward in the conservation of the species.” Additionally, there has been some encouraging news of additional populations of sparrows on other private lands, which could have big implications on future conservation efforts.

As sparrows continued to decline in the wild, the Working Group made the decision to begin captive breeding of this species. A handful of eggs, nestlings, and adults were collected from the various sites to establish a captive breeding program at White Oak Conservation, in Yulee FL (https://www.whiteoakwildlife.org/wildlife/florida-grasshopper-sparrow/). The captive breeding program has been incredibly successful, and captive-bred birds are currently being released to bolster existing wild sparrow populations (https://myfwc.com/news/all-news/fgs-breeding/). “Once we can stabilize and grow existing populations, we could even begin to release birds at other sites that have long since lost their sparrows. It’s an exciting and promising time in the world of Florida Grasshopper Sparrow conservation,” remarks Dr. Bowman.  Over the last two years, 242 Florida Grasshopper Sparrows have been released into the wild at one of the populations on public lands, where scientists monitor them and track their survival and recruitment. Many of these birds have survived and are breeding in the wild.

Today, Archbold maintains its role as an active member in the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow Working Group, which holds bi-annual meetings to evaluate annual goals and discuss future conservation efforts. “It’s truly remarkable to see all of the various partners working together to conserve this tiny brown bird,” Wisner comments. “There is a need for constant cooperation and collaboration between state and federal agencies, universities, nonprofits, and private landowners, and it gives me a lot of hope that we can and will save this species.”

For additional information on the fight to save the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, please visit: https://fl.audubon.org/birds/florida-grasshopper-sparrow or https://myfwc.com/research/wildlife/birds/florida-grasshopper-sparrow/

Author: Megan Selva

To celebrate women in the workplace and this year’s centennial anniversary of the 19^th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, Archbold Biological Station is highlighting contributions made by women in our scientific community. For the past half-century there has  been a strong presence of women at Archbold. In 1976, with the passing of the founder, biological explorer Richard Archbold, his sister Frances Hufty assumed the Chair of the Board and served in that role until her passing in 2010. She was succeeded by current Chair of the Board, Dr. Mary Hufty, her daughter, and niece of Richard Archbold. Dr. Hufty retired recently from a successful career in family medicine, but her biological roots run deep, supporting natural history, biological research, conservation, and education. 

Since Dr. Hilary Swain became Executive Director in 1995 an increasing number of women have joined Archbold as Program Directors and lead scientists. Women in the workplace have contributed to success at Archbold, adding a wider set of skills, creativity, and cultural insights. Nowadays, women make up many of the staff, visiting scientists, board members, and volunteers. Dr. Eric Menges, Director of the Plant Ecology program says, “I’ve always been proud that our program has welcomed women and that female alumni have felt that their internship was an important part of their training and professional development. Many of our female interns have gone on to make a strong mark in the ecological sciences with their research, education, and the development of future generations of ecologists.” 

Female scientists contribute to making Archbold a great place for research, conservation, and education. We are excited to announce a new blog series, ‘Celebrating Women in Science.’ This initiative will share the success of female staff at Archbold, reflect on their experiences, and offer advice. The series will be posted on Archbold’s Scrub Blog: new blogs will be posted monthly. Please follow the blog to see how female scientists contribute to making Archbold a great place for research, conservation, and education. 

Dr. Hilary Swain concludes, “Archbold takes pride in supporting women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). According to http://www.catalyst.org, 36.1% of women in the U.S. graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field. Archbold is excited to inspire more young women to pursue careers in science. We want to share our stories with them.” 

Author: Greg Thompson

Archbold Biological Station’s Avian Ecology Program is best known for its long-term study of the Florida Scrub-Jay, the gregarious, brilliantly blue birds of the oak scrubs of the Lake Wales Ridge. However, the program also has a long history of working with the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, a bird iconic to the Longleaf Pine forest like the scrub-jay is iconic to the Florida scrub—the conservation of each bird and its habitat is inextricably intertwined. Archbold staff, working with the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have been deeply involved with the monitoring and management of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker at the Avon Park Air Force Range (the Range) for more than 25 years. 

The Longleaf Pine ecosystem of the Southeast, on which the Red-cockaded Woodpecker depends, has been reduced to less than 3% of its historical range due to habitat loss for timber, agriculture, and development. As a result, Red-cockaded Woodpecker populations have declined dramatically, leading to the species being federally listed as Endangered in 1970. 

In 1992, the Air Force enlisted the expertise of Dr. Reed Bowman, Director of the Avian Ecology Program at Archbold, to assess the status of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker population at the Range.  Bowman recounted “Historical records from the Range between 1977 and the late 1980s suggested as many as 45 Red-cockaded families may have occurred there over that period. However, after our systematic survey was completed in 1992, only 21 groups of these Endangered birds were still present.” With a baseline established, Archbold and Air Force personnel set out to develop and implement a management plan to increase the population.

First, Avon Park Air Force Range Natural Resources staff reintroduced frequent prescribed fires to maintain the habitat in the condition the birds prefer. Archbold researcher Greg Thompson noted, “Fire is necessary to maintain plant and animal diversity in the Longleaf Pine ecosystem. Without fire, the Longleaf Pine forest transforms into a different habitat, one with more shrubs and mid-story trees, which is far less attractive to the woodpeckers.” Avon Park Air Force Range has a dedicated, highly trained prescribed fire team that burns the Longleaf Pine forests on the Range once every two to three years. This is beneficial for the woodpeckers, but also protects the military’s ability to safely complete their training exercises. Thompson added, “Long unburned pine forests pose a significant threat if they do ignite during a lightning storm or a military exercise because the resulting fires are more intense and harder to contain.”

Another key component of the Management Plan was to ensure the woodpeckers have plenty of cavities in which to nest and roost at night. Cavities are sometimes in short supply because of the scarcity of mature pine trees and the length of time it takes the birds to create a cavity. Thompson explained, “Unlike most woodpecker species which excavate their cavities in dead trees, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers excavate their cavities in living trees. The wood of living trees is very hard and produces lots of sticky resin, slowing the excavation process. It usually takes several years for a Red-cockaded Woodpecker to complete a cavity. For these reasons, we install artificial cavities.” Artificial cavities are wooden nest boxes embedded within the tree to simulate a natural cavity.  A rectangular excavation is made in a suitable tree using a chainsaw while secured standing at the top of a tall ladder—not an activity for folks with a fear of heights. The boxes are installed so that the front of the box and the entrance hole are flush with the trunk of the tree. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and former Archbold researcher, Emily Angell, added, “Red-cockaded Woodpeckers without a cavity are vulnerable at night, so an artificial cavity can mean the difference between life and death. To build a new home for one of these amazing little birds, and watch it move right in, is so satisfying.”

When forests were larger and contiguous, birds were able to move easily among populations. However, today’s pine forests throughout the Southeast are smaller, scattered, and more isolated from each another—thus immigration among populations is very rare. Translocation, the process of moving woodpeckers from large, stable populations to small, recovering populations such as Avon Park Air Force Range is another key element of the management plans. Since the 1990s, the researchers have translocated 54 woodpeckers into the Avon Park population, and 63% ultimately became breeders. These efforts, coordinated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have helped increase the woodpecker population at the Range and added new genetic lines, thereby reducing the chances of inbreeding.

Dr. Rob Aldredge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Liaison to Avon Park Air Force Range commented that, “Thanks to the hard work and dedication of Archbold Biological Station and the Air Force (and its partners) over decades, Avon Park Air Force Range has reached the recovery goal of 40 groups and has joined a long list of Department of Defense installations that have worked tirelessly toward the recovery of this iconic species.” Dr. Bowman added “At 40+ groups, the population is much more stable and less vulnerable than in the 1990s. We have perfected management techniques, and population growth has accelerated in the last few years. It can grow more, but we’ve rescued this population from extirpation.” 

Authors: Jennifer Brown, Laura Reed.

Nancy Deyrup arrived at Archbold back in 1982 when Dr. Jim Layne was the Station Director. Layne was “all about long-term studies,” she remembers. He assured Nancy, who has a Zoology degree, there would be plenty of work for her. Over the past 38 years, Nancy has done it all from data collection for Archbold’s Plant Ecology, Entomology, and Limnology programs to weather collection, education, and photography. Deyrup said, “At that time, there was no digital photography, so I spent plenty of time with developing solutions and Richard Archbold’s photographic enlarger.” Archbold’s trove of weather data is thanks to people like Deyrup who did the meticulous collection before automation. She spent time archiving barometric charts produced by beautifully crafted clockwork mechanisms, as well as measuring water levels of seasonal ponds, wells, and local lakes using staff gauges. For the study of water stress on plants, Deyrup measured water depth in evaporation pans.

In 1989, Deyrup’s work took an unexpected turn. The Archbold Board of Directors decided to offer local school children the opportunity to learn about the remarkable animals, plants, and habitats found in Highlands County. Nancy pioneered Archbold’s Florida Scrub Education program by creating a slide show and field trip of the Station. She initiated the popular ‘Scrub Camp’ back in 1992 that continues to this day. Deyrup and Charlotte Wilson also co-authored Discovering Florida Scrub, a curriculum of environmental science activities for grades 3-5. 

Deyrup shared, “It was so inspiring to introduce Highlands County children to the natural history of the Florida scrub they had been traversing their entire lives. Florida scrub hides its mysteries well from casual observers. The education program gave me an unexpected new area of personal fulfillment. And, our own three children had the benefit of Florida scrub immersion. All three went on to careers in biology.” As adults, the Deyrup children have worked on the Station as well: Deyrup reports, “Our son Leif visited the Station and helped write papers on insects that visit palmetto flowers (there are over 300 such insects on the Station) and on the diet of narrow-mouth toads (they eat almost nothing but ants captured at night). Our son Stephen brings college classes to study the chemical ecology of local plants and animals.”

When asked about her least favorite job at Archbold, Deyrup shared the following: 

“Younger scientists and forgetful older ones often forget that all aspects of science were slower and more laborious than today. Captions for charts were often done with a ‘lettering set’ that would draw uniform letters and numbers, but later, in a big advance, there were rub-off letters and numbers that could be carefully applied to illustrations. This was my least favorite thing to do because it was tedious, and one mistake meant a complete do-over.”

Nancy Deyrup is officially retired but has continued to volunteer in the ‘bug lab’ with her husband, Archbold Entomologist Dr. Mark Deyrup. She was instrumental in completing a major project, getting the data from tens of thousands of pinned insects in the Archbold museum collections online and available via the internet. After Dr. Mark Deyrup’s retirement, so devoted are they that the Deyrups generously funded Archbold’s Visiting Scholar Program, helping to bring talented young scientists to the Station and Ranch. Although retired she is still deeply engaged with Archbold, and reflects, “I have been happy to be part of the Archbold mission of science, conservation, and education.” While many people contribute to part of Archbold’s mission, Nancy Deyrup has dedicated her life to all three.

For more information on Archbold’s ‘Bug Lab,’ Education Program, and Archbold’s Visiting Scholar Program, visit our website at: https://archbold-station.org/

Author: Laura Reed

Founded in 2013 through a collaboration among the US Department of Defense, US Department of Agriculture, and the US Department of the Interior, the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership has worked to bring together private landowners, state and local governments, and non-governmental agencies for a single purpose:  to support conservation and sustainable agriculture while also supporting the country’s military installations and ranges. At first, the two concepts may seem contradictory—why would an agency focused on funding and maintaining the military complex be aligned with protecting agriculture, natural lands and wildlife? The answer is simple: military installations need to be surrounded by lands and waters protected from encroaching development that can hinder their training and testing activities. Nighttime lighting and other disturbances associated with development, as well as citizen complaints about noise, can significantly degrade the effectiveness of military missions. The solution is to protect lands surrounding the military lands that have compatible land uses, such as conservation and agriculture, thus providing a public-private symbiosis known as a Sentinel Landscape.

The Avon Park Air Force Range Sentinel Landscape is one such partnership. Established in 2016, it covers almost 1.7 million acres over several private ranches and includes portions of the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area. As central Florida continues to grow at a rapid pace, protecting conservation lands within these areas is especially important. First, the dry prairie habitat serves as a safe natural community for imperiled species like the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, Gopher Tortoise, and Eastern Indigo Snake. Second, the stitching together of protected properties creates a natural wildlife corridor for large area-requiring species such as Florida Black Bears and Florida Panthers to roam safely.  Last, the natural water filtration provided by undisturbed lands and waters regulates the flow and improves the quality of water feeding downstream Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.

This same concept of connecting conserved properties benefits the Air Force Range as well as Florida’s wildlife. By preventing development of the land in close proximity to the Range, the Air Force safeguards its airspace and therefore its national defense mission. Dr. Hilary Swain, Archbold Executive Director observed, ”The Sentinel Landscape is an idea that has the possibility of uniting people, protecting our ecosystem and enabling our military mission. We can come together on this idea of a secure future.” 

Archbold Biological Station’s involvement with the Avon Park Air Force Range began in 1992, when the Avian Ecology Program began monitoring populations of the federally Endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker, and the federally Threatened Florida Scrub-Jay. In 2003, the monitoring expanded to include another endangered bird, the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. In addition, Archbold’s Restoration Ecology Program began a multi-year survey of Gopher Tortoises on the Range in 2009. Archbold staff work closely with the Air Force’s natural resources staff to minimize the impact of military missions on the bird populations and help to manage conservation efforts. Dr. Reed Bowman, the Director of Archbold’s Avian Ecology Program, who conducted those early surveys noted, “Populations of endangered birds are at less risk when they occur in networks of connected populations. When adjacent lands within Sentinel Landscapes support these same species, all populations benefit and this also allows the military to train in very natural landscapes, while also reducing regulatory conflicts.”   

For more information on the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership, including the newly published 2020 Accomplishments Report, please visit

https://sentinellandscapes.org/

Author: Scott Ward

Driving along Old State Route 8 or State Route 70, most drivers must keep an eye on the bevy of oncoming semi-trucks and hurried SUVs and sedans. As someone who uses these roads quite often, Plant Ecology research assistant Scott Ward is wary of taking his eyes off oncoming traffic, fearful for if they may swerve towards his own lane. As a botanist; however, his eyes can’t help but sway to the all-too-alluring band of roadside plant communities found along both roads. Like many paved pathways in south-central Florida, the stretch of Old SR8 running southward towards the entrance of Archbold Biological Station from its junction with SR70 is prone to repeated rounds of mechanical disturbance, or as many might call it: mowing. During the initial quarantine period in the spring months of 2020, these roadside strips went un-mowed for an extended period of time, allowing plant species to grow free and unabated. As Ward and other Archbold employees began to work primarily from home in the early response to COVID-19, visits to the Station were less frequent than before. Upon intermittent returns to the Station, Ward noticed that the diversity (and height!) of vegetation along Old SR8 had dramatically increased. Ward remarked, “Bright colors assembled along the otherwise predominantly non-native, grass-dominated roadside strips—from showy native species such as dayflower (Commelina erecta), cottonweed (Froelichia floridana), and Florida alicia (Chapmannia floridana), the latter of which is endemic to (growing here and nowhere else) Florida.” Sometimes even, these disturbed roadside assemblages can give way to more interesting elements, such as the state-threatened Leafless Beak Orchid (Sacoila lanceolata, pictured), observed in flower along Old SR8, north of Archbold’s Red Hill entrance. The Leafless Beak Orchid grows at the northern end of its range here in peninsular Florida, but can be found elsewhere across Central and South America. It is a particularly showy species of orchid, and can grow in a variety of disturbed habitats such as grasslands and pastures, but never seems to be readily abundant when found. So while these disturbed roadsides often favor noxious weeds and aggressive grasses (see The Bad Seed: A Tangled Tale, archboldedublog.org, published 23 December 2019), these same areas often provide refuge to rare species that otherwise have diminished native habitat or are at the fringes of their more widespread range. Would passers-by have seen this orchid blooming had the regular-scheduled mowing frequency been in place? Ward notes, “This pattern is of course not only unique to plants, as many reptile and amphibian species like to use warm road surfaces as spots to soak up sun and gather body heat. In fact, shortly after witnessing this blooming orchid, I observed a Florida softshell turtle (Apalone ferox) thermo-regulating during a somewhat cloudy day along Old SR8 (pictured). Fortunately, no oncoming traffic was present at the time so I was able to safely pull over and escort this unwitting individual off the road.” Thus, while roadside areas can often be prone to periods of intense disturbance, their ecology can be quite dynamic, giving way to sometimes unexpected levels of life.

Most people cannot conceive of a world in which they let their own lawns or neighborhood roadsides grow un-chopped by the relentless blades of the ever-present mower. However, the few seeking a change from their typical low-cut, Bahia grass reality may allow their yards to grow taller, more natural, and more diverse. They may even receive some surprise visits from wildlife that prefer denser cover of herbaceous vegetation.

 “I still remember my first visit to Apalachicola National Forest in the spring of 2018,” Scott comments, “The scarcely-mowed margins of State Route 65 displayed incredible native wildflower diversity, which colored the roadside ditches with a rainbow assortment of plant vibrancy. Here is an area of Florida where infrequent road-side mowing actually promotes botanical diversity and even provides habitat refuge to a number of rare plants.”

Roads serve a primary function, to transport us from one point to another in a safe and efficient manner. Scott concluded, “When so many plant and animal species have been relegated to increasingly smaller pockets of their once abundant habitat, we must consider the role that fragmented habitats, and the roads that run through them, serve in preserving life. Changing the timing of mowing to after flowering season, and reducing the frequency of mowing on roadside verges, can have beneficial effects for wild plants. Breaking from our traditional expectations of what roadsides should look like—mowed, sterile, and uniform—means we may accept a world more hospitable for biodiversity.”

Dr. Swain, Archbold Director added, “In Texas, native roadside wildflowers have become a beloved feature. Lady Bird Johnson saw roadside protection and restoration as an opportunity to bring rich plant and animal biodiversity to what might otherwise be unhealthy roadsides lined with billboards and invasive species. The Texas Highway Beautification Act, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2015, has been her signature achievement toward promoting roadside conservation.”

Dr. Swain continued, “In Florida, the Department of Transportation has a Wildflower and Natural Areas Program. The core goals of the program are to improve aesthetics and driver safety while lowering maintenance costs, and FDOT has increasingly emphasized the importance of preserving naturally occurring stands of wildflowers on Florida’s 12,000 miles of state-maintained roads. There is more information on ‘Preserving Natural Stands’ on the FDOT web site, showing how protecting naturally occurring native flora will increase habitat for pollinators while safely reducing the cost of managing roadside vegetation.”

Author: Joe Gentili

The First and Second New Guinea Expeditions:

In the early years of the 20^th century, the island now known as New Guinea was a place that very few Westerners knew much about or had visited. This island is the second largest in the world at over 300,000 square miles, and much of the interior is mountainous and very difficult to navigate. The island’s plants and animals were only beginning to be seriously studied by biologists when Richard Archbold decided to lead the first of his Expeditions there, in 1933.

Archbold and his crew attempted to traverse through the unforgiving terrain of New Guinea during the first expedition largely on foot. A scientific expedition requires an immense amount of goods, clothing, equipment, food, etc. to be transported along with the expedition members. According to Archbold Biological Station Librarian Emeritus, Fred Lohrer, “On the first New Guinea expedition, the expedition scientists learned that hiring local tribesmen [to help transport food and goods] was inefficient; first because the men did not want to travel beyond the boundaries of their tribal domain, so a second group of men had to be hired, and second, because a man can carry only so much, which has to include his own food. Foraging off the land was not an option because there was limited local food cultivation. Therefore, penetration deep into the interior of southern New Guinea was difficult.”

The lessons learned from this first expedition suggested that a new strategy would be needed for future explorations. Lohrer says, “The first expedition experience convinced Archbold that for future New Guinea expeditions he needed an amphibious plane to carry men and supplies deep into the interior, to the base of the central mountain ranges, and taking advantage of New Guinea’s several large rivers.” For the second Expedition of 1936-37 Archbold purchased an aircraft, named Kono, for use in the transporting of people and goods.

A critical member of these expeditions was Richard Archbold’s friend and confidant of more than 40 years, Dr. Austin Rand. Rand had a remarkable scientific career and he lived six years longer than Archbold, dying in 1982. Rand spent the last years of his life in Lake Placid working on local Florida fauna, spending time with Richard Archbold, and serving in several capacities at Archbold Biological Field Station. Lohrer mentions that, “Austin Rand told me that on the second New Guinea expedition up the Fly River, the expedition was camped along the river at the base of the mountains, and the airplane, Kono, was ferrying supplies and food. Then, at Port Moresby, a sudden storm, a ‘Guba’, turned Kono over, and the plane was later damaged beyond repair when it was hoisted out of the water. So, the expedition was ‘up the creek without a paddle.’ Luckily, they had radios… [and] built rafts to float specimens, supplies, and men down the Fly River to the coast, where they could be rescued by ship. Rand told me that one night he was awakened by noise or movement and he quickly discovered that the river was rising rapidly because of rain upstream, and the rafts, tied to trees, were in danger of being capsized in the rising water. The expedition dealt quickly with that emergency; did not lose any specimens or supplies; and floated down river to the rescue ship.”

The expedition members were adventuring through territory that was little charted and were forced to battle the elements, and insects as well. However, the experiences of these two expeditions did not sour the members and many would join Archbold on his Third New Guinea Expedition of 1938-39.  This last Expedition led by Richard Archbold himself will be discussed in part three of this series. 

More details about Archbold Expeditions and Richard Archbold can be found in the book “Richard Archbold and the Archbold Biological Station,” by Roger A. Morse. Details on the aircraft used by Archbold and crew can be found in a five part series written by Aviation enthusiast Curtis Adkisson, at https://www.archbold-station.org/documents/publicationspdf/Adkisson,C.S.-199697-ArchboldHappenings-AviationArchboldExpeditions.pdf. The official logs, journals, specimens, etc. from the Archbold Expeditions are housed in the American Museum of Natural History, Department of Mammalogy, Archbold Expeditions Collection located in New York City.

Authors: Leyna Stemle and Dylan Winkler

In the deep, rust-colored sands of Red Hill resides one of the oldest known Gopher Tortoises at Archbold Biological Station. Tortoise number 21, affectionately known as the Queen of Red Hill, is one of the original marked tortoises from the Station’s long-term tortoise mark-recapture project started in 1967. “She was already an adult when she was first found back in 1968, making her at least 63 this year!” explains Herpetology & Restoration Ecology intern Dylan Winkler. Every week Winkler enjoys finding Gopher Tortoise 21 as a continued part of the long-term tracking study. “For decades she has lived at Archbold, being recaught by many researchers. But until last July we had never found her nest, partly because tortoises bury their eggs and scientists still do not fully understand how they decide where to nest.”

Researchers from Georgia Southern University were at the station in 2019 studying how climate change may affect Gopher Tortoises, which are already a threatened species. Collaborating with Archbold Herpetology staff, they hatched tortoise eggs from 18 nests, then collected blood samples before marking and releasing each baby tortoise back at the nest site. DNA extracted from the blood samples was used to genotype each hatchling to determine its parents. This process revealed that Gopher Tortoise 21 had five babies with the male tortoise 158 (another long-time resident of Red Hill) in 2019.

“Not only was this the first time her nest was found and linked to her with genotyping, but those five babies mean that she has the ability to reproduce even after 50+ years of being sexually mature!” said graduate researcher Leyna Stemle from University of Miami. We know Gopher Tortoises can live a very long time, but little is known about how long they are able to produce healthy babies, in other words, what is their reproductive longevity. Many tortoises can live for a long time, over 100 years in captivity for some species, but it is important to consider how long they can keep adding to a population. Such information is not known for most turtle species and is one reason why long-term studies are essential. “This find is very encouraging and we hope to continue to track Gopher Tortoise 21 and her reproductive success!” says Herpetology Research Assistant Amanda West.

It seems West’s wish was heard. In July 2020, Stemle, and Winkler were in the field assessing the condition of previously mapped tortoise burrows. Stemle remembers: “While walking through the scrub, I discovered a tiny yellow tortoise sitting in the sand. Looking closely, I saw notches along its shell, evidence it had been previously marked and released last year. Notching is a marking technique used by turtle researchers to uniquely identify tortoises. According to the notching code, this tortoise was Number 1328 – one of Gopher Tortoise 21’s babies from 2019!”

This little individual was in a restored sandhill area, about 50 meters from 21’s confirmed nest site. Stemle and Dr. Betsie Rothermel, director of the Archbold Herpetology & Restoration Ecology program, took detailed measurements of the tortoise and found it grew 19 mm in length and nearly doubled in weight during its first year. “We were interested in where it would go once we finished measuring it,” Winkler recalls, “so we followed it until it reached its destination – a tiny burrow! We probably would not have noticed this burrow if it hadn’t led us right to its home. Young tortoises are very understudied because their small size and great camouflage make them so difficult to find.” For the herpetologists at Archbold, every recapture is vital to uncovering the secrets of immature tortoises. 

Stemle states, “Overall, this was an uplifting encounter and we now know the Queen of Red Hill is still adding to this special population of Gopher Tortoises – even at 60+ years old!”

You can see a video about Gopher Tortoise 21 on YouTube, search “Queen of Red Hill”, or read this blog post from 2018:

https://archboldedublog.org/2018/07/21/queen-of-red-hill/

Author: Stephanie Koontz

This summer, the Plant Ecology Program at Archbold Biological Station received its 21^st award from the Florida Endangered and Threatened Plant Conservation Program. This program has supported two-decades of continuous data collection, following tens-of-thousands of individually marked rare plants. It has provided opportunities for more than 40 research internships, many of whom published their first peer-reviewed scientific paper from research done at Archbold and are now employed in agencies, consulting firms, non-governmental organizations, and universities across the country. Furthermore, research supported by this funding has helped guide landscape level management decisions on how to best manage for our native plants.

The Florida Endangered and Threatened Plant Conservation Program is funded through grants from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help conservation and recovery actions for federally listed species on non-federal lands. Applications are competitive and are evaluated by the Endangered Plant Advisory Council, which makes recommendations to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The Council advises on the endangered, threatened and commercially exploited status of native plants of Florida. Grant recipients provide scientific data on the basic biology and ecology of these plants so the Council can review and update their status and inform strategies for their recovery and management.

With this grant support, Program Director Eric Menges and his team at Archbold have been able to better understand life history strategies, habitat requirements, seed ecology, and pollinator interactions of some of the most imperiled Florida scrub plant species. “One species that has benefited from this funding is the critically endangered Avon Park Harebells (Crotalaria avonensis), found only near Avon Park and Sebring,” explains Menges. “We have been able to examine many life history aspects of this species including its responses to fire, but also to human-made disturbances such as off-road vehicles. We have observed pollinators and monitored seed set. With our collaborators at Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, we now know patterns of genetic diversity of this rare plant.” Armed with this information, Menges’ program has successfully planted and established two new protected populations. “Without the knowledge gained in the first 20 years, we would have been guessing on critical components and most likely, our introductions would have failed,” describes Menges.

Another rare species that has benefited from this long-term support is the Highlands Golden Aster (Chrysopsis highlandsensis). “This species is more or less restricted to Highlands County, with a few populations in southern Polk and northern Glades Counties,” describes Research Assistant Scott Ward. “Twenty years of data have shown that, contrary to popular belief, plants move! We have noticed declines in many of our permanent annual monitoring plots. However, rangewide censuses done every five years show new plants recruiting nearby, maybe 50–100 yards away. This plant disperses seeds (known as achenes) with the wind, so plant ‘patches’ appear to move slowly across the landscape. This is important for land management, recommending that, for this species, both the occupied habitats and a surrounding buffer area needs to be managed appropriately.”

Beyond single species research, grant funding has supported broader questions. Archbold’s Population Dynamics of Endemic Plants project (PDEP, pronounced P-DEP), documents the response of multiple rare plant species to management such as mowing, tree thinning and prescribed burns. “In our PDEP project, we document the presence and abundance of specific rare plants prior to a management activity, and then one-, two-, and five-years after the activity is completed,” describes Research Assistant Stephanie Koontz. “The take home message from this project has been, it is hard to replace Florida’s natural disturbance, fire, but mechanical treatments are sometimes necessary to make applying prescribed burns safe for land managers and the general public.”

The Florida Endangered and Threatened Plant Conservation Program promotes engaging in educational opportunities. This funding has been instrumental in training the next generation of scientists through Archbold’s research internship program. “This funding supports two interns for nine months,” explains Menges. “While these interns are vital in helping us collect our long-term data, one of the biggest rewards is watching them grow as young scientists as they learn about ecology and conservation of the Florida scrub. They bring a fresh set of eyes, ideas, and perspectives into our research.” Interns are required to develop their own independent project, which they then present to the scientific community through seminars and scientific publications. The independent research project is frequently cited as one of the top reasons students apply for Archbold internships and is often a highlight during their experience.

The long-term support from the Florida Endangered and Threatened Plant Conservation Program has produced new science, tests of land management techniques, and development of young scientists. It has expanded the depth and reach of Archbold’s Plant Ecology Program and helped point the way for future research, conservation, and education. “We are thankful for their continued support. Much of what we have accomplished over the last 20+ years would not have been possible without it,” remarks Menges. “I hope this program will continue to support research programs such as ours, with a common goal of conserving the native plants of Florida.”

Author: Betsey Boughton

July 31, 2020, marked Dr. Hilary Swain’s 25^th anniversary as the Executive Director of Archbold Biological Station. Given this momentous milestone, Archbold Board members, Archbold supporters, staff, colleagues, friends, and family from across Europe, recently surprised Hilary with a virtual Zoom celebration to reflect on and celebrate Hilary’s achievements over the years. Schellie Archbold, one of Archbold’s Board Members, started out the festivities with a toast, “To Hilary, someone extraordinary and beloved to us all.”

Hilary fell in love with field stations in the mid-1970’s while working on a project on limpets, or marine snails, for her Zoology class at the Marine Biological Station in Millport, Scotland.  However, she never would have envisaged that her dream job would be as the Executive Director of Archbold Biological Station in Florida. After nearly 10 years in a faculty position at the Florida Institute of Technology, Hilary decided to apply for the Executive Director opening at Archbold Biological Station in 1995. Dr. Mark Deyrup, Emeritus Entomologist, recalls one of the lines in her letter of application. Hilary wrote, “I value among my accomplishments the number of acres of natural habitat protected as much as the number of scientific papers published.” True to her word, in 25 years, Hilary has worked to bring Archbold’s conservation footprint from 5,000 to 20,000 acres. In addition, Hilary has helped neighbors and state agencies establish 53,000 acres of contiguous conservation lands around Archbold Biological Station, with more acres targeted for the future. One of her strategic priorities is that, “Connected conservation lands are important for the protection of species of conservation concern, like the Florida Scrub-Jay and the Florida Black Bear. Linking Archbold’s lands with other conservation lands, public and private, is critical to maintaining the integrity of the Station and conserving it and surrounding areas for future generations.”

Archbold Chairman of the Board, Dr. Mary Hufty, reflected on the first time she met Hilary, “I knew you were amazing when you showed up to your interview with two small children. Your attitude was that you could do it all. You could make great research happen and inspire others to be creative. Your unending optimism and energy have transformed my life and certainly Archbold.” Since Hilary arrived at Archbold, there have been more than 1,300 scientific papers published, 353 grants awarded, and 383 college classes hosted. 

For these past 25 years, Hilary and Mary have both been deeply involved in the Organization for Biological Field Stations (OBFS), an umbrella network that represents >200 field stations around the world. Friends from OBFS joined the virtual event to congratulate Hilary and share how much Hilary’s leadership and contributions meant to OBFS. Sarah Oktay from the University of California-Davis shared, “Hilary has done an amazing job with her team and the Board, and Archbold is a shining example of what a field station can be.” When asked about what a job at a field station entails, Hilary, a self-proclaimed “jack-of-all-trades,” explains, “When you work at a field station, all life’s experiences count. No amount of training and experience can truly prepare one for the spectrum of responsibilities. A field station can carry a daunting combination of roles: research and teaching campus, nature preserve, environmental education center, small museum, lodging and conference facilities, and in Archbold’s case, a 3,000-head working cattle ranch. There is no substitute for the practical skills that often don’t appear on a resume: it helps if one knows how to drive a boat or 4WD vehicle, operate a winch, read a building plan, and barbecue for 50 people. Those who were raised on a farm, restored old homes, pottered around boats, or served as an apprentice mechanic have an advantage.”

Fred Lohrer, Archbold’s Emeritus Librarian, who worked at the Station for 40 years, congratulated Hilary on her accomplishments that span from adding acreage to new infrastructure and new programs for Archbold, all in the context of hurricanes, droughts, a recession, and now a pandemic. Many staff commented on how much Hilary’s leadership and friendship meant over the years.  Gene Lollis, Buck Island Ranch Manager said, “Many things come to mind, but one of the most important is your friendship.”

At the end of the celebration, Hilary, who had been completely taken by surprise, thanked everyone for their memories and kind words. Here are some of the things she said: “Working at Archbold has been a privilege. It has lifted me up much more than I’ve lifted Archbold. I don’t think you understand that when I help you, that helps me. I’ve always felt that whatever I’ve contributed, I’ve learned more from contributing. It is all of you that made me, not that I’ve made Archbold over the last 25 years. I want you to know how you helped me do this, not what I have done myself.”

Here’s to Hilary!  Her passion for science, conservation, and education at Archbold has inspired everyone. Archbold looks forward to many more years.

Author: Paul Ruben.

If you have walked on one of the public trails at Archbold Biological Station, you’ve probably noticed one recurring theme: Sand! Bright, white, sugary sand. Sandy slopes, sandy depressions, and sandy shoes (inside and out). Although deep sand may not be ideal for walking, it does create the canvas for something wonderful…animal tracks!

Wildlife is abundant at Archbold, although many species are rarely seen during the daytime. Each species’ unique tracks add their signature to the sand and sand does a great job of capturing them. Florida Black Bear, Bobcat, Coyote, Gray Fox, White-tailed Deer, Turkey, Otter, Gopher Tortoise, Florida Sand Skink, Opossum, Armadillo, Marsh Rabbit, feral pig, mice, insects, and even Florida Panther—you name it, and researchers can identify their tracks at Archbold. Even better, the scrub becomes a fresh blank canvas after every downpour of rain. With the current COVID shut-down human visitors aren’t currently able to access Archbold’s walking trails, but wildlife visitors are taking advantage of the empty trails.

In November, 2019 Archbold Research Assistant Paul Ruben purchased a simple trail camera. He wanted something that was affordable, took quality photos, and was waterproof. The latter proved challenging, as Ruben found later. Between November and February, 2020 Ruben positioned his camera in an area of Archbold called Red Hill, an area of high scrubby sandhill. He recorded a group, or ‘rafter’ of turkeys, a pair of Bobcats, a solitary Gray Fox, deer, and a band of hunting coyotes. A trend was occurring. Each week when he checked the camera, Ruben found not only cool pictures, but a story behind how wildlife behave when they are not in the presence of humans. Ruben remarked, “Most behaviors were obvious. For instance, predators like Bobcats move covertly, in a stalking or curious stature. Deer were also secretive, always on the fringe of the trail and ready to flee through brush, although less so than when I’ve seen them in person. Turkeys traveled in numbers for protection.” The most interesting observation was how some wildlife seemed to follow a routine. “What looked like the same Gray Fox would visit the camera multiple days in a row. Bobcats and Gray Foxes would share the same trail, separated only by an hour or so.” This was likely more dictated by the patterns of their prey, but Ruben found it was fun to watch nonetheless.

Unfortunately, in late February 2020 Ruben approached the camera to find moisture inside the body housing. He attempted to dry it out, but it seemed the seals had failed. He returned the camera and could not begin camera trapping again until June 2020.

Wildlife at Archbold became more active during the summer.  Ruben regularly moved the new camera throughout the Station. In late June he caught only one sighting of a coyote and deer. So far in July he’s had observations of multiple Bobcats, a Coyote, Opossum, Armadillo, a Brown Thrasher (bird), and a feral pig. “On July 19, I was walking up to the trail camera and noticed large angled prints with five clearly defined toes, and most important, they were walking towards the camera!” exclaimed Ruben. “My excitement was justified when I viewed the captured photos and saw a Florida Black Bear.”  A sighting of a bear in November 2019 at the Station was what originally inspired Paul to start camera trapping, so this moment brought his efforts full-circle.

So what’s next? According to Ruben, “a photo of a Florida Panther would be a great; I haven’t seen one in person. Archbold records intermittent panther tracks on site so it is possible. Our neighbors have photo records and a trail camera photo from here would be valuable to better understand the panther movements as they range further north.” Ruben says he will continue to document these sightings, even if it is just for fun.

Ruben takes a lot of joy thinking about the best places for wildlife photos and the background scenery of each location. “Every time I check the camera it feels like I’m opening up a present. You never know what you might see. Archbold’s Station and adjacent Reserve total 8,840 acres: that’s enough space for many of Florida’s wide-ranging nocturnal animals to survive. We have a lot to learn about these elusive animals and what I am recording can help build the knowledge to improve the quality of their lives.”

Author: Laura Reed

Lake Annie at Archbold Biological Station has been an important research site for many years. In fact, there are records of research and sampling there even before the Station was built. One recent visiting Lake Annie researcher found fame this year as she was short-listed for an international photography award.

Kristy Sullivan is working towards her master’s degree in Biological Sciences at Florida International University under the guidance of Dr. Evelyn Gaiser. She first became interested in algae after observing cyanobacteria under a microscope during a harmful algal bloom workshop for citizen scientists in 2016. Sullivan’s thesis focuses on long-term trends of phytoplankton assembly in Lake Annie.

Dr. Gaiser and others have collected long term phytoplankton data at Lake Annie since 2005. According to Gaiser, “There is an incredible dataset here. It’s pretty rare to have the basic parameters for lake health, like temperature, structure, water clarity, and nutrient data, for 35-40 years. This is what we have with Lake Annie.” Sullivan is using the phytoplankton dataset for her masters at FIU, in collaboration with Archbold. She said, “What we are finding is phytoplankton in the lake are very sensitive to weather and climate patterns. The lake is fed 80-90% by groundwater and periods of intense precipitation create runoff containing lots of humic matter, turning the water brown. During these periods, we find a totally different phytoplankton community than during times when the lake is clear.” This research is important for lakes in other regions as well: many northern lakes are starting to turn brown, possibly due to recovery from acid deposition or land use changes. Lake Annie’s natural fluctuation between brown and clear water periods may aid us in understanding northern lakes that are warming and browning with climate change.

 Between 2009 and 2013, the lake was in a clear water phase and the specimen in this photo (Staurastrum nova-caesareae) was a dominant species in the algal community. However, the lake entered a dark phase in 2013, and this species has not been seen since. In the uncertain future of climate change, the weather may continue to be rainy and wetter, causing the dark phase to persist. The researchers are now left wondering, “Will we ever see S. nova-caesareae in Lake Annie again?”

Sullivan collected the noteworthy specimen during Lake Annie’s clear phase, dried the water sample, and used a scanning electron microscope to create the almost three-dimensional image. The photograph joined FIU’s growing collection of 170 reference images from monthly samples taken since 2005. She submitted the photo to the 2020 Canter-Lund Award competition.

The British Phycological Society established the Canter-Lund Award in recognition of Hilda Canter-Lund, whose photographs of freshwater algae “combined high technical and aesthetic qualities whilst still capturing the quintessence of the organisms she was studying.” Sullivan submitted her photo to the 2020 competition, and in June found herself in the final phase of judging. Sullivan’s photo ultimately did not win the award, but her otherworldly photo of S. nova-caesareae and the rest of the finalists can be viewed here: https://brphycsoc.org/canter-lund-2020/. This fall, Sullivan plans to start her first phycology job as a student contractor for the United States Geological Survey studying harmful algal blooms in Lake Okeechobee, FL.

Authors: Dustin Angell and Laura Reed

Quarantines, closed summer camps and activities, canceled travel plans, social distancing…parents are all too familiar with the struggle to maintain some normalcy this summer. With children out of school, many are probably a bit stir-crazy and parents are wondering what to do with these kids all day. Or maybe you are in need of some activities for yourself.

In June, Archbold Biological Station’s Virtual Ecology Summer Camp focused on campers doing at-home science projects that use household supplies. Now that all the camp sessions are over, Archbold has opened up the camp website for the public. The link can be found on Archbold’s website or by visiting ‘sites.google.com/view/archboldvirtualcamp’. You can now enjoy the same fun backyard science projects at your own pace. The website includes simple directions, tutorial videos, photos of campers-in action, and even educational nature videos made by teen camp volunteers.

Archbold’s Director of Education, Dustin Angell, encourages people of all ages to visit the website and try the projects, saying, “Becoming better acquainted with the weather, wildlife, and habitats in your neighborhood is an enjoyable pursuit for families and individuals that benefits their health and wellbeing. Have fun with these projects and customize them to your needs and interests.” The first step is to create a science notebook—use a small notebook or make your own book from paper to record observations and ideas.

One activity is weather monitoring: observe the weather at the same time each day, include the date and time to log in your science notebook, and describe or draw what kind of weather you see and feel. Is it raining, cloudy, or sunny? Does the air smell like it will rain soon? Does it feel hot and humid, windy, or cool? If you have a thermometer you can record the temperature each day, or find the temperature using an app on your phone or computer. Can you predict the weather after a few days of careful observation?

For those who love to examine live animals, a pitfall trap is a fun backyard activity. Dig a small hole in a shady location, and place a plastic cup inside (be sure to poke some holes in the bottom of the cup for drainage!). Check the trap at least once a day to see what kind of insects you caught, note them in your science notebook, and release them. Draw pictures of your bugs, or take photos to help identify them using the internet or a field guide. Try putting the trap in different locations. Do you catch more bugs in one place versus another? Do you catch more bugs during the day or overnight? Do your observations about the bugs create a pattern that matches your weather observations?

A scavenger hunt can be a treat for all ages, and with a little imagination, you or your family can build a ‘nature senses scavenger hunt’ right in your own backyard! This activity is adapted from Nature Bridge, and it involves more than just seeing the items listed…some examples to get started in nature are: 

TOUCH: find something smooth; something spiky; something squishy.

SEE: find something red; something left by an animal; something round.

SMELL: find something green—what does it smell like? Pick up a handful of dirt—what does it smell like? Find something that smells sweet.

HEAR: how many different bird calls do you hear? Listen for something far away, something close by. Listen for water…if you can hear water, where is it?

Use these examples to build a scavenger hunt tailored to your own yard or neighborhood—what is interesting about the ecosystem where YOU live?

Spending more time at home is essential this summer, but not all of that time must be spent inside. Kids and adults of all ages can enjoy the outdoors while exercising their bodies and minds with a handy science notebook and a little imagination!

Author: Joe Gentili

Richard Archbold, founder of Archbold Biological Station, was a world renowned scientific explorer. He participated in a scientific expedition to Madagascar as a young man, led three long expeditions to New Guinea during the 1930’s and then after permanently moving to Venus, Florida, he sponsored seven more expeditions to the South Pacific. All told he was directly involved in 11 scientific expeditions, which added immeasurably to the overall biological and ecological knowledge of the areas in question as well as providing cultural and anthropological data on Native peoples living in these locales.

Richard Archbold died in 1976 after spending the last 35 years of his life in Highlands County, Florida. Archbold Biological Station is fortunate enough to have several current and former employees who knew him during the latter 1960’s and early 1970’s. This last decade of Archbold’s life was a time of expansion and change for the Station which included the creation of a formal on-campus library. The first librarian to hold the position and current Librarian Emeritus, is Fred Lohrer.  Lohrer achieved a Master’s degree from the University of South Florida in Ornithology, under the tutelage of renowned ornithologist and Florida Scrub-Jay behavioral ecologist, Dr. Glen Woolfenden. Lohrer was hired as the first Station Librarian as well as a research assistant. For years he meticulously studied a variety of the bird species of Central Florida, in addition to his library duties. He published several dozen papers in established scientific journals and held prominent positions in a variety of professional ornithological societies.

Fred Lohrer began work at Archbold in 1972 and retired in 2018. During the 46-year period since his start date, Lohrer has become the authoritative source for the history of Archbold Biological Station and for all things Richard Archbold. Current Librarian Joe Gentili said of Lohrer, “He is an amazing mentor with a wealth of knowledge of all kinds. In addition to deep familiarity of ecological information on the local flora and fauna of this area, he has a vast historical knowledge of Highlands County and its surroundings. If you have a historical question for him; you will always get detailed fact-based answers. For any question about Richard Archbold, Fred is the go-to source. In addition to working personally with Mr. Archbold for four years, Lohrer has spent countless more hours researching and collecting information about Archbold and his endeavors.”

Just before the end of last year, Lohrer created a new synopsis of the biological expeditions of Richard Archbold. In this work he describes the “11 Archbold Expeditions [which] were conducted in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where Richard Archbold was a Research Associate of the Museum’s Department of Mammalogy (1931-76)…The combined results of the 11 Archbold Expeditions were remarkable for the great number of specimens of plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates they collected, and for the detailed ecological and geographical information and photographs [collected]…”

More information and a full summary of the 11 Archbold Expeditions are here: 

https://www.archbold-station.org/html/aboutus/r_archbold/archbold.html.

Stay tuned for later articles continuing the story of the Richard Archbold Expeditions.

Authors: Hilary Swain and Laura Reed

On March 25, 2020 the newly formed Community Response Team at Archbold Biological Station received an invitation:  to join a pilot program focused on a clever idea for field stations across the country (like Archbold Biological Station), to mitigate for the loss of biological field opportunities for students under the COVID crisis, and to create and present multi-site virtual field trips. Dr. Claudia Luke of Sonoma State University in California sent out the call to the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS), for those who would like to collaborate. So began a whirlwind of activity, with Archbold’s Community Response Team members Laura Reed and Dustin Angell committed to furthering this field station goal. 

The ‘OBFS Virtual Field Trips’ collaborators met weekly to home in on what various learning opportunities would be suitable to present. Dr. Hilary Swain, Archbold Executive Director, is a co-lead collaborator, alongside Dr. Luke and Dr. Kari O’Connell at Oregon State University. Swain explained, “We used our connections with other professional research and education organizations, and identified and applied for federal funding. By mid-April, OBFS received notification of a significant award from the National Science Foundation. The Virtual Field: Educational Mitigation for the COVID-19 Pandemic program will be managed from Sonoma State University in California. It will make a significant contribution to enhancing virtual training among the all the field stations involved.”

Archbold is investing some of this funding in professional video production training for the OBFS group, provided by consultant Jennifer Brown. Brown’s company, Into Nature Films, has produced several inspiring films for Archbold, including the recent ‘Colors of the Florida Scrub,’ featured recently on Earth Day. Brown has already shared her expertise with the field stations across the country through interactive virtual Zoom meetings and has provided critiques of the ‘first time’ draft videos being filmed by the scientists at field stations across the nation to improve their skills. She is producing a ‘How To’ video to help train these scientists in this new skill.  Individual field station teams are producing and editing short videos aimed primarily at students and faculty, showcasing the unique habitats at their stations and illustrating ecological concepts. Brown states: “Each of these field stations has a unique ecosystem story to share. Using just their cell phone video cameras and free editing software, we will create a series of educational, engaging videos to share with students and the public. The collaboration is a testament that anybody can create a nature video after learning the basics of documentary video production and storytelling.”

As well as making the site videos, the other activity of the OBFS award funded is to prepare ‘real-time’ field experiences for students and faculty from colleges and universities across the world and to learn from the research experts in the field. Swain added, “Although nothing will ever replace the reality of being in the field, this will give a new opportunity, something like you are on a field trip in nature with three professors in three totally different places all at the same time. This has the advantage that students will able to compare and contrast ecological patterns and processes across locations, a skill that is fundamental to enhancing their ecological understanding.” Archbold is happy to announce the first of these cross-site real time virtual events was held on July 1^st:

Live from the Field:  Fire Research across the Continent is a free virtual event hosted for OBFS by Archbold and featuring fire ecology research from Archbold Biological Station, Pepperwood Preserve in California, and Southwest Experimental Garden Array in Arizona. This inaugural virtual event features Archbold Senior Research Biologist, Eric Menges presenting ‘Fire effects in Florida scrublands.’ The Live from the Field series of events is geared toward college students but the inaugural event was open to everyone. Interested viewers can find the video posted on Archbold’s Facebook page and YouTube Channel.

Author: Hilary Swain

When you are trying to construct a green ‘sustainable’ building, the words Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue are just as applicable as they are for a wedding! Archbold Biological Station’s Frances Archbold Hufty Learning Center provides some appropriate examples. This is another in the series of articles on the principles of ‘green building’ design, as illustrated by the Learning Center.

Although the Learning Center was essentially ‘Something New’ in 2011, it incorporated many of the maxims of reuse, reduce, and recycle. Overall, 18% by value of the building materials used in construction included pre-consumer recycling, or ‘Something Old.’ Dave Dale, overseeing the project for the construction management firm, Owens-Ames-Kimball, explained, “Reducing and recycling construction waste was an important job for everyone on the construction site.” The windows and doors, all aluminum, have 23% pre-consumer recycled aluminum content. The concrete, a local product produced by Jahna Concrete based in Highlands County, contained a high proportion of pulverized fuel ash, the ash resulting from the burning of pulverized coal in coal-fired electricity power stations. This has significant environmental benefits such as increasing the life of concrete by improving durability and providing a stable place to dispose of fly ash waste safely.

Reducing the use of new concrete was a recurring theme, as concrete production uses a lot of energy and releases greenhouse gas emissions. The different concrete components included 12-100% pre-consumer recycled content. Hilary Swain, Archbold Director noted that, “Jeff Mudgett from the architects Parker Mudgett Smith in Fort Myers, was somewhat disconcerted when I insisted that the car park retain as much as possible of the 1930 concrete, dating from the original Roebling construction.” She went on to note, “We know from experience how horrendous it is to try and dig up Roebling concrete. With strength of about 9,000 PSI it’s like drilling into the Brooklyn Bridge. Removing all that perfectly serviceable old concrete would have meant tons of waste and then we would have had to pour modern, somewhat inferior replacement concrete. Our final car park might look like a patchwork of ‘old concrete, new concrete, permeable paving, and asphalt’ but it’s much more sustainable. Some observant people notice it’s a patchwork and ask questions, allowing us to tell the story.”

Another ‘Something Old’ that was reused may be familiar to a few Lake Placid locals. A large slab of concrete originally from the dock at the old pump house at Lake Sirenia, was moved to Archbold to make a bridge leading to the Learning Nature Trail. This reduced carbon emissions by as much as 600 pounds.

Although two pine trees had to be felled to make way for the center’s construction, the wood from those pine trees was taken to a mill in Zolfo Springs to be cut into planks, some of which have been incorporated into a lovely varnished wooden bench built by Larry Riopelle, former Archbold Research Assistant and long-term volunteer.

Not many ‘Something Borrowed’ items can be found at the Learning Center, although there is one nostalgic candidate. When Mrs. Frances Hufty, Richard Archbold’s sister and long-term Chairman of the Board, died in 2010 her family faced the question of the best location for her beloved round rattan dining room table. The choice was to house it at Archbold where Hufty family board members as well as staff and visitors can continue to share happy memories gathering around it and its large central lazy Susan.

‘Something Blue’ There are a rainbow of color-coded interpretive signs at Archbold’s  Learning Center: green for the nature trail, brown for history, purple for native landscaping, light green for sustainable building, orange for K-12 education, yellow for welcome signs and of course ‘Something Blue’ for all the signs about water. Dustin Angell, Director of Education noted that, “Everyone interested in the environment is concerned about water. Our blue signs lead the way for visitors to learn about where the water in the building comes from, how it is used and conserved, and where it goes. With all the details we show, it adds up to a huge amount of learning.”

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. For a wedding, those words ward off evil and symbolize good luck and a long future. Hopefully they’ll mean exactly the same for Archbold’s Learning Center.

Author: Reed Bowman

In the late 1990’s, a group of ornithologists, scientists that study birds, and bird conservationists articulated a simple idea: that there were millions of birdwatchers world-wide, and their numbers were growing even as those of the birds themselves were declining. They recognized that each birdwatcher had unique experiences and knowledge about birds they had seen and that knowledge, gathered together in the form of checklists of birds seen in particular areas at particular times and freely shared on the internet, could change the science and conservation of birds forever. Dr. John W. Fitzpatrick (known by everyone as “Fitz”), the Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and former director of Archbold Biological Station, was at the forefront and by 2002, he and his team had launched eBird, an on-line resource where birders could enter when and where they went birding, and a list containing a count of all the birds they saw or heard. It started just in the US but had grown to include the entire world by 2010. Over half a billion bird observations have been entered and the data increases by 100 million each year. It is now the world’s largest citizen-science project. At an award ceremony for this innovation, Dr. Fitzpatrick said “eBird was an audacious idea, the notion that humans can act as biological sensors through bird watching… By instantly recording trends in bird populations, eBird acts as a real-time monitor of ecosystem health around the world.”

John Fitzpatrick is a bit of an ornithological prodigy. He identified his first bird from a field guide in kindergarten, and studied birds across South America throughout college and graduate school, describing new species and new behaviors. In 1972, he was an intern at Archbold Biological Station where he met Glen E. Woolfenden, who had recently begun his now famous long-term study of Florida Scrub-Jays. Thus began a life-long collaboration between the two, which ultimately attracted Dr. Fitzpatrick to Archbold as its Director in 1988. In 1995, he became the Executive Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, but he has continued his long-term collaboration on the scrub-jay project and he and his students return to Archbold every year to collect data. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, under Dr. Fitzpatrick’s leadership, has grown to be one of the preeminent centers for the study of birds and their conservation in the world and eBird is the crown jewel among their many achievements.

eBird data contributed to a recent paper in the journal Science that showed that bird populations in North America have declined by over three billion, nearly 30% over the last 50 years. The causes of these declines might be diverse, but eBird can help identify where bottlenecks might be occurring¾on the breeding grounds, during migration, or on the wintering grounds, or even in specific habitats or sites. Dr. Fitzpatrick thinks that citizen-science can educate people about the role birds play and how they affect us, and increase “understanding about how humans and natural systems can begin coexisting more stably than we do today.” Archbold Biological Station is pleased to announce that Dr. John Fitzpatrick will present a webinar on Thursday, June 18^th at 3:30 pm titled “How birds can save the world: Lessons from eBird, the world’s largest citizen science project.” He will show how eBird generates remarkable data about bird populations and individual species across their entire range. This talk is geared toward very general audiences of all ages and is accessible even to individuals with only passing interest in nature.

The free webinar will be hosted on Zoom, Thursday June 18 at 3:30PM (EDT). Interested parties may register online at www.archbold-station.org, or attend the Facebook Live-stream. Visit eBird online at ebird.org.

For more information, call 863-465-2571 during business hours M-F 8AM to 5PM.

Author: Amanda West

We can now say it’s officially the rainy season here in Florida. At Archbold Biological Station, at least 7 inches have fallen in the past 2 weeks. This year’s dry season was very dry, and researchers at Archbold were able to keep track of how low water levels dropped by continuing to monitor a set of seasonal ponds that have been checked monthly for the past 21 years. “All our ponds dried out this year, which hasn’t happened since Hurricane Irma” says researcher Amanda West in the Archbold Restoration Ecology & Herpetology Program. West has been leading seasonal pond monitoring since she started at Archbold in 2018, right after Hurricane Irma hit Highlands County. As she remembers, “The scrub was so wet. Ponds were so full, they were connecting with each other across the landscape. It rained a lot in 2018 as well, so most ponds never dried up in 2018 or 2019”. In contrast, this year had only an average of two inches of rain a month from November 2019 to April 2020, which brought water levels in wetlands and larger lakes down across Highlands County. “All our ponds finally dried up, as is typical in the dry season which is good.” commented West.

One would think the drying up of ponds is a bad thing for the plants and animals that depend on these ponds for food, water and shelter. Seasonal pond communities, however, are adapted to experience dry and wet periods and without these cycles of dry and wet, the ponds can become unhealthy. “Intermittent drying up is typical and good for the soil, for the amphibians, and for the plants,” explains West. “Pond soil doesn’t get a lot of oxygen when covered with water. When the pond dries, the soil microbes get a chance to process some of the nutrients they couldn’t when deprived of oxygen.” When there is standing water, much of the organic matter from plants can float on top of soil and doesn’t completely break down without oxygen and contact with soil microbes. When the water leaves, this organic matter settles on the soil surface and can be broken down by different microbes that work in oxygenated environments.

Seasonal ponds are very important for frogs and toads to lay their eggs because of the lack of fish predators. Fish eat their eggs and developing tadpoles. West explains “Since seasonal ponds dry out periodically, fish usually can’t live there. When the landscape gets really wet during a wet season or hurricane, the ponds can connect via sheet flow with each other and fish will travel between ponds, repopulating them. Now that our ponds have dried out for the first time in 2 years, amphibians like the Pine Woods Treefrogs have a safer place to lay their eggs.”

Plants, it turns out, are also well-adapted to dry and wet cycles. “Some herbaceous plants, such as Hatpins or Meadow Beauty, need open areas of ponds, but can’t be flooded over when they are seedlings or small plants. These plants need dry times to grow and sometimes to reproduce. They usually are able to finish their life cycle and set seed before they get drowned out by the ponds filling up: then their seeds germinate the next time the soil is exposed.” West recommends those interested in learning about the seasonal ponds at Archbold to sign up and attend the Virtual Field Trip hosted by Dustin Angell on June 16^th.

On Tuesday June 16^th at 9:30AM, join Dustin online as he visits a seasonal pond to discuss the ecosystem and search for life. To register for Archbold’s Virtual Field Trips with Dustin Angell, please visit the Archbold website at archbold-station.org, or plan to attend live on our Facebook page. 

 Author: Mark Deyrup

Highlands County gardeners are all too familiar with beggar-ticks and their daisy-like flowers that turn into annoying seed heads. Its seeds have two sharp points that can cling by the hundreds to socks or pants legs, but an even worse fault is that it can quickly overwhelm a garden. Along dry roadsides beggar-ticks are modest, attractive, 2-foot plants persistently in bloom even during droughts. In a well-watered, fertile garden, however, this plant can morph into a 6-foot monster with inch-thick stems and deeply embedded roots. 

Like many local residents, Archbold Biological Station entomologist Mark Deyrup is currently working at home. When tired of peering through his microscope he takes gardening breaks; yanking up young beggar-ticks is a primary chore. While weeding, he noticed that beggar-tick leaves are aromatic, with a somewhat camphor-like fragrance. Intrigued, he Googled beggar-tick, using its scientific name, Bidens alba. It turns out that beggar-tick tea is used in traditional medicines throughout the tropics in response to a wide range of ailments from allergies to cancer.

The active chemical composition of supposedly medicinal plants is a hot topic in chemistry, so Deyrup called his son Stephen, who is a natural products chemist at Siena College, Albany, New York. Stephen located a scientific publication listing a whopping 301 ‘biologically active’ compounds found in beggar-ticks. Some of these, says Stephen, “I would not want to put in my body.” The bottom line is that none of the medicinal virtues purported for beggar-ticks have been validated in clinical trials. This is not unusual in the field of traditional botanical medicine because it is difficult to get standardized doses of particular plants, and trials with human patients are appropriately regulated.

Among the less worrisome chemicals of beggar-ticks are terpenes, including pinene and camphene (hence the camphor smell). Terpenes, such as limonene in citrus, are often attractive to humans, but repellant to most insects. Plants with high concentrations of terpenes are usually protected from most leaf-eating insects but attacked by certain specialized insects that are resistant to specific terpenes. Deyrup wondered if beggar-ticks might be attacked by an unusual group of specialized insects. 

To test this idea, Deyrup collected samples of beggar-tick flowers and young seed heads from plants found growing all around the buildings of Archbold Biological Station. Samples were placed on paper towels in plastic freezer bags ventilated with many tiny holes made with a sewing pin. The bags were hung with clothespins on curtains in the Deyrup home. “Some scientific research in its preliminary stages is totally low-tech,” remarks Deyrup.

Within a few days insects began to emerge. Over about 6 weeks a successive series of flower head samples have produced one species of moth, 5 species of flies, and 7 species of small wasps that probably attack the moths or flies. “Here’s the thing,” says Deyrup, “the insects of the Archbold Biological Station have been studied by various scientists for over 65 years. Thousands of species of insects are known to live on the Station, but 6 of the species found on the beggar-ticks had never been seen here.” The abundance of beggar-tick plants right next to the insect research lab makes this even more surprising.

 At the Archbold Biological Station insects have been vigorously surveyed by several methods: light traps at night, different kinds of fine netting traps, soil extractions, water traps on the ground, watching for insects on flowers, and sweeping insect nets through vegetation or aquatic habitats. A good many insect species, however, may be missed by entomologists depending on such techniques because they spend their lives hidden in some special location where nobody is looking. “The medicinal value of beggar-tick plants remains unclear,” says Deyrup, “but for me they have warded off complacency about the depth of my entomological knowledge after 37 years of research at the Archbold Biological Station. Many generations of biologists will be enlivened by exploring the secrets of the natural world.”

Author: Laura Reed

Readers who keep up with the Archbold Biological Station weekly articles know that we have had an interesting couple of months! The station has been closed to visitors and staff transitioned to working from home, communicating through virtual meetings, and only performing the bare minimum ‘essential’ activities permitted on-site. One of the most challenging transitions was for the Education Program—how would Director of Education Dustin Angell continue to teach schoolchildren and visitors about Archbold and the local habitats?

When Florida began sheltering in place, the Archbold Communications Team acted quickly. Thursday seminar events normally presented in the Frances Archbold Hufty Learning Center moved online as free Zoom webinars. The Education Program rolled out the Discovery Classroom online learning series, which featured Dustin exploring different scrub locations in real time with a phone and a selfie-stick, to the delight of children and adults alike! Dustin says, “I was worried it wouldn’t feel real, like I was just practicing for a tour by myself, but we found ways to use technology to interact with the viewers and even have guests each episode.” The execution of both series of events quickly evolved as the Archbold team became ‘Zoom experts,’ and the public reaction was more than the team could have imagined. Executive Assistant Laura Reed was relieved, “The Communications Team put so much work into the development, preparation, and presentation of those events…the entire process was completely new and we dove straight in, learning as we went along, with no idea how it would be received. It was enormously gratifying to see that we had reached over a hundred viewers for most of our events!” By May, the Archbold events were much more polished and streaming live on Facebook, reaching even more viewers.

Now as June approaches, Dustin Angell normally would be in full preparation mode for Archbold’s annual Ecology Summer Camp, known by alumni as “scrub camp.” Sadly, this, the 29th year of scrub camp, had to be cancelled along with hundreds of other events in the area…so what did Dustin do? You guessed it…he created the first ever Archbold Virtual Ecology Summer Camp! “Cancelling our in-person camp was hard, especially knowing how much it means to so many families, but I’m honestly excited about what we are planning for virtual camp,” says Dustin. “It is a chance to support the campers’ explorations of the nature in their own yards and neighborhoods. I hope they gain a deeper appreciation for where they live and make connections between what they observe and the bigger picture of science and conservation in our region.” Laura elaborates, “Following the success of the Discovery Classroom events, we knew Dustin could host an engaging and accessible virtual camp for children, but he has gone above and beyond by creating an exceptional experience packed with activities that can be done with simple household items, right outside our own homes.”

In this virtual camp, campers will complete fun at-home assignments, video-chat in small moderated groups, and watch live virtual field trips where Dustin will live-stream from different ecosystems. At home, campers will create science notebooks and explore the nature in their yards and neighborhoods, then share their science notebook projects with their groups. Dustin will also give live demos with snakes and animal skulls.

Virtual camp sessions will run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during four weeks in June. Parents can register their children ages 7-12 for one week sessions at Archbold’s website. In addition to camp sessions, on Tuesdays in June Dustin will lead Virtual Field Trips to different locations on Archbold’s properties. Field trips are included with all camp registrations, but are available to all ages without a camp registration. For more information on these and Archbold’s other online events for June, visit

https://www.archbold-station.org.

Author: Angela Tringali

A male Purple Martin perches. Photo by: SUSAN YOUNG

Every spring billions of birds migrate from wintering grounds in the south to their breeding grounds in the north. These birds join the hemispheres, and at a time when many people are feeling isolated, can provide both a feeling of connectedness and a rewarding hobby. “Serious birders frequently travel to find specific birds and grow their life list,” notes Meredith Heather, graduate intern in Archbold’s Avian Ecology program, “but during migration the birds come to us and you don’t have to travel to enjoy them.”

Continue reading →

Author: Hilary Swain

Dr. Phil Robertson and Dr. Peter Kleinman with their presentation on the USDA LTAR network at the annual meeting, held this year via Zoom. Screenshot by Caro Cordova.

Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch, partnering with the University of Florida Range Cattle Research and Education Center in Ona, is one of 18 sites nationwide in the Long-Term Agroecosystem Research LTAR network of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (https://ltar.ars.usda.gov). This year’s annual LTAR scientist meeting was originally planned for the last week of April, 2020 at Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University (MSU).  At the LTAR Leadership meeting in Beltsville, Maryland at the beginning of March the full dimensions of COVID-19 became apparent. Dr. Hilary Swain, Archbold Director describes the deliberations, “It was clear that an in-person LTAR meeting would be impossible. Recognizing that the LTAR scientists nationwide had set aside meeting days in their calendar, the organizers at Michigan State University made a bold decision—rather than canceling or postponing they pivoted to offer an on-line Zoom meeting, and furthermore agreed to get this done in less than 8 weeks!” Continue reading →

Author:  Mark Deyrup

Microgaster archboldensis collected at Archbold by Dr. Mark Deyrup, Archbold Entomologist. Photo by Stephanie Leon.

For hundreds of years naturalists have been busily discovering, describing, and naming the many plants and animals that share our world. In spite of these centuries of dedication the task is incomplete. Many species remain to be discovered and named, even in such well-explored places as Florida. The main reason for this is the mind-boggling number of different kinds of small animals, especially insects.

Continue reading →

Author:  Scott Ward

Florida Perforate Lichen Cladonia perforata growing in scrub habitat in Highlands County, Florida. What make this species of lichen unique are the perforations (holes) present along the lichen’s branches. Photo by Scott G. Ward

What do you think of when you hear about mammals, birds, or plants? You probably picture in your head your pet, a backyard bird, or even your favorite flower. If you’re like Seth Raynor, an intern in the Plant Ecology Program at Archbold Biological Station, more often than not you probably think of lichens instead. Raynor has been studying lichen ecology at Archbold for the past few months, discovering all sorts of species previously unknown at the Station. So what is a lichen? Raynor elaborates:

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Author: Hilary Swain

April 22^nd, 2020 marked the 50^th Anniversary of Earth Day. On this day in 1970, 20 million Americans — one tenth of the U.S. population at that time — joined together across hundreds of cities to demand a new path forward for our planet. There were protests about declining air quality, reduced water quality, and loss of habitat and species, but Earth Day has also always been a celebration of nature, and an acknowledgement that nature is essential to a sustainable life on Earth. The first Earth Day is credited with galvanizing millions of people worldwide to help protect the planet.

To celebrate Earth Day, and to serve all those anchored at home seeking inspiration and solace from the beauty of nature, Archbold Biological Station launched its latest short video ‘Colors of the Florida Scrub’ filmed by Into Nature Films. This new online offering is part of Archbold’s ‘Wonders from Wonderland’ series. Filmmaker Jennifer Brown shared, “The film begins with a flaming orange-red sunrise and a time-lapse of a bright yellow Prickly Pear cactus flower opening. I organized colors into sequences so there is a yellow sequence, a green sequence, a pink sequence, and so on. Florida Scrub-Jays doing different behaviors add splashes of blue and some drama throughout the film. Macro close-up shots of tender pink oak leaves and multi-colored blueberries represent the joy of Spring in the scrub. There are two sequences in the white-brown-black-gray spectrum as a juxtaposition to the more vivid color sequences. In the tradition of abstract expressionism art, I played with removing recognizable forms so viewers can really ‘see’ the colors.”

You can view the 2-minute video from Archbold’s Facebook page and from its YouTube Channel. Also on Earth Day, Archbold hosted a ‘Zoom webinar’ with a viewing of the film followed by a few Archbold panelists on hand to share their personal perspectives of color in the scrub, and to answer public questions about the ecosystem and the film. Please check out Archbold’s YouTube page and its Facebook page to see the replay of the panel discussion.

Archbold Biological Station was established in 1941, nearly 30 years before the first Earth Day. Executive Director, Dr. Hilary Swain describes Richard Archbold, “As a visionary who founded an organization that was way ahead of its time and with a mission, core values, and purpose that have proven timeless. For nearly eighty years, since the day it was founded through to the modern era, it’s been Earth Day every day at Archbold. The organization has always worked in service of the Earth: collecting and nurturing data and findings, managing lands and waters, informing wise policy decisions, and sharing this knowledge with schoolchildren, students, decision makers, and scientists around the world.”

She added, “By holding a mirror up to nature, Archbold allows us all to see the Earth from our own perspectives. The curious find out about the complexity of nature, the analytical explore how things work, artists interpret the intriguing beauty and meaning of colors, shapes and shadows, activists find motivation and inspiration, and those who grew up with the scrub ecosystem as their back yard recall childhood memories and reflect on the heritage of place. All are wonderful reasons to join us to celebrate Earth Day.”

For more information on Archbold events, please visit www.archbold-station.org.

Colors of the Florida Scrub: the wonderful purples of False Foxglove Agalinis filifolia against the saturated greens of Saw Palmetto and Dwarf Huckleberry. Photo by Reed Bowman.

Maintaining the fire line. Photo by Alan Rivero.

Author: Alan Rivero

Have you noticed distant smoke plumes while driving along US Highway 27 or State Road 70? Earlier this year, pre-COVID and before the recent drought-triggered burn ban, it was burning season for many ranchers and land managers in Highlands County. As usual, the research and operation crew at Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch had an active prescribed fire season. Fire is an important management tool for Florida pastures and rangelands and for other Florida habitats. Many native Florida plants and animals require fire to maintain certain vegetation heights and openness. Some plants even require fire to germinate and flower! For ranchers, fire is an important tool for fresh forage and removal of dead vegetation and shrubs. Each year, Buck Island Ranch burn managers, Laurent Lollis and Gene Lollis, in collaboration with the ranch scientists, create a burn plan for the ranch that meets both ranch operational and research needs.

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Author: Dustin Angell

A still shot from the film “Misty Morning: Hatpin Season,” by Into Nature Films. Watch the full video on Archbold’s Facebook page. Photo by Into Nature Films.

As the people of Highlands County adjust to the first week of the Governor’s “Safer at Home” order, many are tackling home projects or finding time to check out new TV shows, while also trying to stay connected and safe. Parents, teachers, and students are living in a new world, with the difficult responsibility of sustaining learning goals without attending school in person, or visiting parks and museums. Archbold Biological Station is excited to offer some support to our community with a variety of free online learning events, educational science resources, and social media content.

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Author: Dr. Reed Bowman

A Chuck-will’s-widow perched on a branch during the daytime. These are nocturnal birds that capture flying insects in the dark. “Chuck-wills-widow” by Scott Heron is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Native Floridians probably grew up listening to the rhythmic call of the Chuck-will’s-widow, singing its name over and over. The Chuck-will’s-widow is nocturnal, a member of a family of birds known as nightjars. In Highlands County, they breed in the spring and summer but fly south for the winter, only to be replaced here in the winter by the Whip-poor-will, another nightjar that breeds farther north. A vast trove of folklore exists around these birds. Their scientific name Caprimulgidae, literally means “goat milkers,” as they were thought to feed on the milk of lactating goats at night. Rather both species are aerial insectivores, mostly catching flying insects on the wing in the middle of the night. The birds have tiny bills that belie their enormous mouths and stiff whiskers to catch moths flitting in the dark. The whiskers are sensitive to touch and help direct insects into their mouth. Think of them as large catcher mitts and the ball is the flitting unpredictable insects. Both species are declining in numbers throughout their range, especially in Florida, yet relatively little is known about them here. In 2019, Dr. Reed Bowman, Director of the Avian Ecology Program at Archbold Biological Station, and Yosvany Rodriguez, a post-baccalaureate research intern from Franklin and Marshall College, began studying them at Archbold. Dr. Bowman said “The decline of these species may be driven by changes in flying insect populations or changes in species’ breeding or wintering habitat. We wanted to understand their preferences for different habitats and patches burned at different times here at Archbold. Does our fire management benefit them?”

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The Buck Island Ranch 2S branding iron. Photo by Mary Margaret Hardee.

Author:  Hilary Swain

There have been many stories over the years regarding the meaning behind the Buck Island Ranch 2S brand. Some say it had no significance at all. However, those in the cattle business know there is always some meaning behind a ranch’s holding brand.

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From left to right: intern Seth Raynor, intern Lily Fulton, research assistant Lexi Siegle-Bates, and research assistant Scott Ward work together to measure large rosemary. Photo by volunteer Linda Gette.

Author:  Lexi Siegle-Bates

Scientists at Archbold Biological Station work in some of Florida’s unique habitats. One of these interesting habitats is known as ‘Rosemary Scrub’ or, more informally, a ‘rosemary bald.’ You may have walked through a rosemary bald before without even knowing it. A rosemary bald is a relatively open landscape characterized by large Florida Rosemary shrubs (Ceratiola ericoides), and a few other dominant plants. Not many other plant species can grow in this habitat.  This is partly due to allelopathy, which is when plants release chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants. In particular, Florida Rosemary plants secrete a chemical known as ceratiolin, which prevents most other plants from germinating in the area surrounding the rosemary shrubs.  Allelopathic interference, droughty soils, and other environmental limitations, result in patches of bare sand forming between rosemary shrubs, hence the name ‘Rosemary Bald.’ Since there is not much competition from other plants, rosemary shrubs can grow in large clusters, often with 100’s of individual plants in a small area. Florida Rosemary is also a long-lived perennial shrub with a steady growth rate, meaning it can often grow taller and wider than the scientists at Archbold!

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Author: Dr. Jim Carrel

Female Red Widow Spider. Photo by Jim Carrel.

Hidden away in the native scrub habitats at the Archbold Biological Station is a rare spider whose presence generally goes unknown to all but ardent field biologists. The Red Widow Spider spends most of its life hidden in short palmetto bushes.  Its world-wide range is restricted to undisturbed sand ridges in four central counties and two counties near Florida’s Atlantic coast. Dr. Jim Carrel, Research Associate at Archbold and former professor of biology at the University of Missouri, explains, “Although this species has a toxic venom like the dreaded Black Widow, there is no record of it having ever harmed a person. This is not at all surprising considering how much work I have to do to find them. The likelihood of anyone encountering a Red Widow by chance is near zero.”

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Author: Dr. Angela Tringali

Four Florida Scrub-Jays perch above oak scrub at Archbold Biological Station. Photo by Dr. Reed Bowman.

There are numerous articles on how friendships change in your 20s, 30s, and after marriage or parenthood. What we do not know is how ubiquitous these changes are throughout the animal kingdom. Researchers at Archbold Biological Station describe the social lives of Florida Scrub-Jays in different stages of life.

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Authors: Eli Haines-Eitzen, Abby Parker, Natasha Radic, and Keith Tarvin

A model Florida Scrub-Jay mounted on the top of a 15-foot pole appears to be ‘on sentinel,’ scanning its surroundings for predators. A rope and pulley system allows the researchers to raise the box below the model, causing the sentinel to ‘disappear.’ Photo by Keith Tarvin.

Have you ever noticed how strange or awkward it feels when a murmuring crowd suddenly goes quiet for no apparent reason? As a member of such a crowd, perhaps in an auditorium before a speech or performance, chances are you never really notice the murmuring until it stops. But once it ceases, you may look up and scan the room to see what caused the sudden hush–is there a problem? Does someone know something that you don’t?

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Oberlin College Researchers at Archbold Biological Station. From left to right: Keith Tarvin, Eli Haines-Eitzen, Madeleine Gefke, Mary Garvin, Natasha Radic, Abby Parker, Katherine Karson. Photo by Katherine Karson.

Authors: Madeleine Gefke, Katherine Karson, and Mary Garvin

During their winter January Term, faculty and students from Oberlin College visited Archbold Biological Station to research mosquito and bird behavior. Biology Professors Mary Garvin and Keith Tarvin established a base at Red Hill and were joined by Oberlin students Katherine Karson, Madeleine Gefke, Natasha Radic, Eli Haines-Eitzen, and Abby Parker. Having returned to chilly Ohio in early February for their spring semester, the students are grateful for the opportunity to have experienced Archbold and the amazing Florida scrub. Below, we describe the Garvin team research, and next week we will report on the Tarvin team research.

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Richard Archbold circa 1930, mounted in the original cardboard frame from the photographer. Photo credit:  Kaiden Studios, Inc.

Author:  Joe Gentili

Richard Archbold, founder of Archbold Biological Station in Venus, Florida, spent the period from the late 1920’s until the beginnings of WWII on a series of expeditions that took him across the globe. In conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History, he led three scientific expeditions to New Guinea and participated in an earlier one to Madagascar. During his travels to and from these expeditions, he and his crew visited places as far flung as Hawaii, Australia, and Equatorial Africa. Along the way, he accumulated a wealth of photographs, documents, artifacts, and more. The official Archbold Expeditions materials are archived at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, but his personnel collection from the expeditions, as well as other personal and family memorabilia are housed at Archbold Biological Station. These materials are collectively known as the Richard Archbold Archive: Archbold Librarian Joe Gentili said, “The overarching goal of the Richard Archbold Archive is to protect and preserve Mr. Archbold’s materials.”

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BEFORE: Disturbance, buildings, an old tennis court, and a large stand of non-native bamboo on the future location of Archbold’s Learning Center and Lodge in March 2005. Main Drive is on the right. Photo credit: Archbold Biological Station

Author:  Dr. Hilary Swain

Every real estate person lives by the maxim—location, location, location.  When Archbold designed and built the Station’s Frances Archbold Hufty Learning Center, location was the pressing issue. But it wasn’t about where to site a new facility to increase market value. Dr. Hilary Swain explained there were many questions for Archbold staff, the architect, and the engineers: “Could Archbold add a large new facility dedicated to outreach and education while minimizing impacts?  Could a building serve as a portal to the Florida scrub and be in harmony with nature? Could it be built without disturbing or degrading any native scrub or wetland habitats? Could the design complement the existing historic buildings and not detract from their appearance?” The answers were all yes; Archbold selected a location that met all these goals, but it took a lot of thinking and planning to get there. This is the second in a series of monthly articles on the principles of ‘green building’ design, using Archbold’s Learning Center to illustrate how to build while also enhancing rather than degrading the environment.

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