Flowers of Florida Ziziphus coat almost every leafless branch when at peak flowering. Photo credit Cheryl Peters

Winter for most of the United States is defined by cold temperatures, leafless trees, and in some states, lots of snow. Most flora and fauna have gone dormant or are hibernating, awaiting warmer spring temperatures. For many field biologists, this slowdown is a time to catch up on data processing and plan for the upcoming field season. But scientists in Archbold’s Plant Ecology Program are not afforded this leisure; they are hard at work collecting annual data on one of the Lake Wales Ridge’s rarest and most imperiled plant species, the Florida Ziziphus. “This plant was once declared extinct,” remarks Research Assistant Stephanie Koontz, “but once scientists and naturalists within the community started to look for it again, they discovered a handful of wild populations! We are now working hard to help bring this species back from the brink of extinction.”

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A Saltbush plant, native to Florida. Photo by Toby Shaya

When visiting natural history museums, one might be accustomed to seeing skeletons and replicas of animals towering overhead. Or maybe long rooms with dioramas, or models, depicting life from times long past and habitats all over the world. Or possibly even larger rooms offering interactive displays designed to learn about animals, big and small. For children and adults alike, Archbold Biological Station combines all that this vaunted institution has to offer as well as access to a pristine but endangered bit of Florida’s natural past, the Florida scrub. This is literally ‘natural history’ at its finest. Visitors learn about South Central Florida’s unique natural habitats and the science that goes on at the Station. Toby Shaya experienced this for the first time this past fall as a new research intern.

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Florida Goldenaster flowers in bloom attract a native pollinator. They have one of the longest flowering periods of any Florida wildflower. Photo by Steve Dickman.

Both prominent establishments along Lake Wales Ridge since their beginnings in 1941 and 1929, Archbold Biological Station and Bok Tower Gardens have been longtime collaborators. One an expert on plant demography of rare species and the other an authority on native plant horticulture, Archbold’s Plant Ecology Program and Bok Tower’s Rare Plant Conservation Program have most recently teamed up to study the federally endangered Florida Goldenaster (Chrysopsis floridana).

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Although eBay is a household name in e-commerce and extraordinarily successful, their name was an afterthought. Founded it 1995, the company was originally known as Auction Web, owned by a parent company named Echo Bay. When they tried to establish a domain name for their web-site, they discovered that echobay.com was already taken so they shortened it to their second choice, and thus eBay was formed. But unbeknownst to the founders of eBay, EBAY had long been the name of a territory of Florida Scrub-Jays at Archbold Biological Station.

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Titusville Balm flowers in bloom. Photo by Suzanne Kennedy.

Nestled among the business developments and suburbs of Florida’s Space Coast and hidden within dense patches of hickory and oak trees on dry, nutrient poor sands, you can find a spindly and discreet minty herb popping up. Its delicate purple flowers and fragrant fleshy leaves persist even in this harsh environment surrounded by vegetation bigger and better at competing for resources. Restricted to a 13-mile range in the northeastern part of Brevard County atop the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, this plant — known as the Titusville Balm (Dicerandra thinicola) — is one of the rarer plants in the state of Florida, and in the world. But scientists studying this species are hopeful that it will endure, given a little encourage-mint from fire.

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The Florida scrub is home to hundreds of specialized plants from pine and oak trees, to wetland grasses, to a wide variety of wildflowers. How do scientists at Archbold Biological Station tell them apart? “When identifying plants, we have to rely on all of our senses,” explains research assistant Lexi Siegle of the Plant Ecology Program. “While sight is very important in identifying differences among plants, it can be inadequate when two species look alike. We also distinguish differences by using smell, texture, taste, and even sound.”

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Richard Archbold, far left and crew aboard the Guba

Before he established the Archbold Biological Station, Richard Archbold explored large areas of the South Pacific Ocean during the 1930’s, while flying to and from New Guinea as sponsor and leader of three scientific expeditions to various parts of this large island near Australia. In the process, he and his crew charted much of the island and the surrounding seas, with the help of a military style Consolidated Aircraft PBY-1 flying boat, known as GUBA II. The knowledge he gained of the area, as well as the equipment he used, would both come to play important roles in World War II; in the Pacific and also on the Atlantic front.

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Archbold staff members, Dustin and Emily Angell at a research site in the Canadian Rockies

Students and researchers come from around the country to Archbold Biological Station in Highlands County because it offers something special: VIP access to the natural habitats and ranchlands of Florida’s Heartland, decades of scientific data, on-site experts, lodgings, and meals. Archbold is one of approximately one thousand field stations around the world. Each is different, but all offer access to the outdoor laboratory that is the natural world. This summer, two Archbold staff, Dustin and Emily Angell were invited to  a field station in the Canadian Rockies to meet the scientists there and see what research they are pursuing.

Emily is an Archbold Research Assistant monitoring endangered birds at the Avon Park Air Force Range and Dustin is Archbold’s Education Coordinator. The couple moved to Highlands County together from Syracuse, NY to accept positions at Archbold.. “This trip  was part of our 5^th wedding anniversary road trip,” said Emily. “We visited a field station in Costa Rica as part of our honeymoon, too.”

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Florida Scrub Jays.  Photo by Reed Bowman

Autumn is harvest time and this is true for animals as well as for people. Local oak trees, from majestic live oaks to many small stature scrub oaks, are heavy with acorns, and you’ve probably noticed enterprising squirrels burying those acorns. Acorns are an important food for wildlife; bears, birds, and deer all eat acorns. In some cultures, acorns also are an important food source for people; acorns are easy to collect and rich in calories thus are an efficient food. Once on the ground, acorns are protected from deterioration by chemicals called tannins and their thick husk. Because they store so well, many animals (including humans) store them to eat later, especially over the winter when other types of food are less abundant.
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Harwrightia flowering along the margin of cutthroat prairie and wet forest. Photo by Stephanie Koontz

Recently, researchers of Archbold Biological Stations’ Plant Ecology Program joined forces with staff from Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens to implement a new study following the state threatened plant called Hartwrightia (Hartwrightia floridana). This plant species was once known to occur in seepage slopes and along margins between flatwoods and wet, low-lying areas. “We have records from the Florida Natural Areas Inventory that show populations once spread from central to northern Florida and even into Georgia”, recalls Stephanie Koontz, researcher from the Plant Ecology Program. She continues, “However, at the 2018 Annual Rare Plant Task Force meeting of academics, scientists, government agencies and conservation organizations, it became obvious that little was known of the current status of this plant. It was then decided that Archbold scientists would collaborate with Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens’ Conservation Program to update many of these occurrences and collect data on populations in Highlands and Polk counties.”

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Betsey Boughton, Keith Brinsko (Agroecology Research Assistant) and Avarna Jain (Research Intern) sample plants in a grassland experiment at Buck Island Ranch. Photo by Dustin Angell

Buck Island Ranch, operated by Archbold Biological Station, is a full-scale cow-calf operation with approximately 3,000 cows on 10,500 acres. The Ranch is home to more than 700 plants and vertebrate animals, of which six are federally threatened or endangered. When Archbold started leasing the ranch from the MacArthur Foundation in 1988, the vision was to operate the ranch as a full-scale cattle operation to serve as a real-world laboratory for agroecology research. The research focuses on wetlands and water management, understanding how grazing and fire affect wetlands and grasslands, and more recently, understanding the ranchland carbon cycle.  In addition to Archbold’s research program, they also coordinate the research activities of many visiting researchers and graduate students who conduct their own studies at Buck Island Ranch. A major multi-investigator initiative in which Archbold is deeply involved is the new US Department of Agriculture Long-term Agro-ecosystem Research Network or LTAR where the Ranch, partnered with the University of Florida Range Cattle Research and Education Center, is one of 18 sites nationwide selected to form a science network for cross-site experiments and interdisciplinary research. The goal of the LTAR network is to understand how we can sustain food production while decreasing environmental impacts.

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 Field trips are a fun feature of every field station meeting: this year Archbold staff got to visit Mount Desert Island and Duck Island, both operated by the College of the Atlantic in the Gulf of Maine.

“What is a biological field station? That is one of the commonest questions I am asked before I give a presentation about Archbold Biological Station. It doesn’t matter if I am in Highlands County, elsewhere in Florida, or around the country, it’s the same question”, said Dr. Hilary Swain, Director of Archbold. “Most people are curious as they have never heard of a biological field station. I like to tell them they are special places which provide everything that students, researchers, and the general public would want to better understand the natural environment. I say that field stations combine four vital ingredients for science, conservation, and education. First, they are located in a ‘natural outdoor laboratory’—meaning there are species and habitats for study, and protected key ecosystems for science and conservation. Second, they have great facilities ranging from analytical equipment, places to stay and eat, libraries, environmental sensors, and hi-technology and communications. Third, they house a community of scientists, students, educators, and land managers with whom to share information and discuss emerging ideas. Fourth, field stations are a critical repository of knowledge, combining data, scientific publications and long-term monitoring to tell us how the natural world works and how it is changing over time.” Continue reading →

An example of the many specimens in the Archbold Collection. Photo by A. Grimes

The world is full of interesting forms of life. Each time you wander out into the world you begin interacting with plants and animals, sometimes without ever knowing how that interaction influences or affects other organisms and the environment. At Archbold Biological Station, studying these plants and animals and their interactions with other organisms is what one branch of scientific study is all about. Because of this interest in how organisms behave, interact and influence the environment, scientists at Archbold have, over many years, collected a wide variety of useful and fascinating information, as well as thousands of actual specimens of the plants and animals in the scrub habitat of our own community. Three years ago, under a grant from the National Science Foundation, Archbold scientists began to digitize its on-site biological collection and upload the information online, making it more accessible to scientist from around the world.

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The pits and squiggles of the humble antlion or “doodlebug” are a ubiquitous feature of the sandy soils found at Archbold Biological Station and throughout the southeast. Antlions build inverted cone shaped pits by crawling backwards in a spiral and throwing piles of sand outwards. Once finished digging, they sit quietly at the bottom, waiting for prey. Ants or other creatures that step on the slope lose their footing and tumble into the pit, where the antlion waits with its powerful jaws and fast reflexes. Archbold is home to 11 different species of antlions, each with slightly different preferences for location and food.

Gently tickling the edge of a pit is often enough to coax the tiny hunter from its lair, revealing its scary looking mandibles and armored head. However, anyone brave enough to have dug the entire creature out of its pit was probably disappointed. “Despite having these big scary heads,” Archbold Intern Ann Dunn states,” they’re really just these fat little grub babies under there. They can’t sting, or even walk properly.”

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Marisa Grillo, one of Archbold’s current Plant Ecology Program interns, collects data for the long-term study of Lewton’s Polygala (Polygala lewtonii), one of the many projects interns have the opportunity to participate in. Photo by Stephanie Koontz.

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While many are familiar with Archbold Biological Station’s relatively recent designation to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 for its role in the history of architecture, science, and conservation, few may be familiar with Archbold’s one designation as a National Natural Landmark more than three decades ago. The National Natural Landmark program is run by the National Park Service and serves to “recognize and encourage the conservation of sites that contain outstanding biological and geological resources.” Archbold was selected for the program in 1987 for its “outstanding condition, illustrative value, rarity, diversity, and value to science and education.” It encompasses one of the largest relatively undisturbed tracts of contiguous natural communities characteristics of the Lakes Wales Ridge, and is home to a large number of endemic and rare species of plants and animals. Continue reading →