Zachary Taylor
Berry College, GA·Ecology & Evolution
Large tracts of undeveloped, ecologically varied land are rare natural laboratories. Making them useful to scientists takes planning: infrastructure, management partnerships and a clear mission.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Earth & Environmental Science
Biology
- Topics
biological field station
field research
longleaf pine
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2028
What they work on
- Gather guidance from experienced biological field station managers through a panel discussion at the Organization of Biological Field Stations annual meeting.
- Determine the administrative and physical infrastructure needed for a field station on Berry College's 20,000-acre campus through structured consultations with managers of comparable stations.
- Set research and management priorities through a mediated workshop with Berry faculty, administrators and close management partners.
- Produce a five-year strategic plan with a mission, vision, and management and infrastructure roadmap through a second, larger stakeholder workshop.
More about the research
This project plans a biological research field station on Berry College's campus in northwestern Georgia. The campus covers more than 20,000 acres. It includes 300 acres of old-growth mountain longleaf pine forest, a habitat rare in North America. It also has mixed hardwood forest, prairies, wetlands and the Oostanaula River system. These habitats hold over 600 plant and animal species, at least 29 of them federally protected, including freshwater mussels and snails. As a working forest, the land also allows study of timber harvesting, management and replanting practices.
Why it matters
A planned field station could open a large, biodiverse landscape, including rare longleaf pine forest and habitat for federally protected mussels and snails, to a broader scientific community. It could support research on protected species and on best practices for timber harvesting and replanting. That work could benefit conservation efforts and forest managers in the region.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jonathan Schilling
University of Minnesota, MN·Ecology & Evolution
Convene an advisory group of 15–25 stakeholders, including university, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, State Park, local and Indigenous community representatives, for facilitated planning sessions at the Itasca Biological Station.
William Morris
Duke University, NC·Ecology & Evolution
Build and validate a climate- and fire-driven integral projection model for Venus flytraps, using demographic data from near-factorial manipulations of fire frequency, drought, and warming across longleaf pine savannas.
Gaurav Kandlikar
Louisiana State University, LA·Ecology & Evolution
Evaluate how long-term, frequent prescribed fire shapes the structure and function of soil microbial communities in longleaf pine ecosystems.
The school
Berry College: 1 labs on PI Pages.
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