Research Infrastructure: Enhancing Research and Education at a Midwestern Watershed-Scale Field Station.

Field-based research and education are critical to developing an understanding of natural habitats, their biological and physical diversity, and the environmental processes that support them. This project significantly improves and expands the capacity of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s (UNO) Glacier Creek Preserve (GCP) to conduct field research and STEM education at the university’s primary ecological field station. The project will help the Preserve support and maintain the natural environment that is the focus of educational and research activities while also protecting a remnant of tallgrass prairie, the region’s historic natural environment. In particular, the Preserve encompasses an entire watershed greatly expanding the research and education potential that this project will enable. More broadly, the Preserve is available to the public, allowing casual visitors to gain an appreciation for the natural environment while also observing ongoing research thereby increasing an appreciation for the role of science in understanding the natural environment. Glacier Creek Preserve has the potential to transform interdisciplinary, watershed-scale research in a region where such studies remain scarce. The environmental diversity of the Preserve, and its proximity to UNO and the Omaha metropolitan environments, provides an easily accessed and freely available field location for interdisciplinary research that expands our knowledge about ecosystem interconnections. With the resources requested in the project, GCP will be better positioned to engage with other regional preserves with a similar research focus adding to knowledge about grassland ecosystem dynamics and ecosystem processes that will inform land management. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.