Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS) is a research station run by the University of Montana in Yellow Bay, Flathead Lake, Polson, Montana. It was first established by American ecologist and professor Morton John Elrod in 1899 on the Swan River near Bigfork. In 1909, it was moved to its current location. Year-round research began in 1967. Areas of ongoing research includes lake ecology, conservation genomics, stream, river, and floodplain ecology, microbial ecology, aquatic invasive species, and sensors and sensor networks. It is the second oldest biological field station in the United States, and the longest running freshwater field station in year-round operation in North America.
Montana was admitted to the Union in 1889. The University of Montana at Missoula, a public research university, received its charter in 1893, opening in 1895. Morton J. Elrod, the first biologist at the new university, began teaching in 1897.[1] He made preparations for a new research station in the western area of Montana in the spring of 1899, spending a week looking for appropriate sites.[2] At the time, the only biological field station in the Rocky Mountain region was the New Mexico Biological Station established by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell.[3]
Several factors contributed to Elrod's decision to choose a site for a research station, particularly the ease of transportation by railroad and boat for researchers. Visitors could access the general area of the site by the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railway, but still needed stagecoaches and steamboats to complete the trip. Elrod envisioned an educational summer program for students, teachers, and members of the community.[4] He wanted to build a research station for the purpose of studying biology with a focus on scientific questions of natural history for the benefit of the university, the museum, and the state. The State Board of Education accepted the plan and the station was given departmental status and funding.[5] The first location chosen for the station was in the town of Bigfork,[6] on the north end of Flathead Lake, near the banks of the Swan River.[2] With financial support and contributions, the station was completed that summer. The original station in Bigfork had a field laboratory with equipment that could host twelve students, a dark room, a room for storage, and three boats.[5]
Yellow Bay Biological Station, 1903. In its early years, researchers traveled by train to get close to Flathead Lake, but still needed to take a stagecoach and a steamboat for the last leg of the trip.
Elrod soon began thinking bigger and more long-term. With the help of Montana politician Joseph M. Dixon (1867–1934), Congress passed the 1904 Flathead Allotment Act, which granted the station 160 acres (65ha) for research purposes, 80 of which was set aside for what would become the new station on Yellow Bay, 40 for part of Bull Island, and 40 for Wild Horse Island, which was exchanged for the "South Forty" on Polson Bay. Later, land on Bird Islands was added for research use.[7] Elrod believed the station at Yellow Bay provided a unique vantage point for scientific research in the U.S., with a mix of "lakes, rivers, mountains, [and] forests, at elevations from 3,000 to 10,000 feet (910 to 3,050m)."[3] The station was moved from Bigfork to Yellow Bay in 1909.[8] Elrod promoted the station as offering opportunities for both recreation and serious research. The station was productive, producing 360 printed pages of research in just the first six summers.[3]
The station faced funding scarcities in the 1920s and 1930s leading to only a few summer sessions in those decades, but research continued in partnership with the Montana Fish and Game Commission. Activity resumed in the 1940s and in the post-WWII era, with federal grant money paving the way for new infrastructure and improvements to the station. The scope of research expanded in the 1950s to include mammals.[9] Year-round research began in 1967,[10] with the Morton. J. Elrod Laboratory constructed in 1968. Monitoring programs were updated to modern scientific standards in 1977.[10] The Schoonover Freshwater Research Laboratory was built in 1981, giving the station the tools to perform chemical water analyses onsite.[11] The year-round dormitory and commissary complex was finished in 1986.[11] FLBS is the second oldest biological field station in the United States,[12] and the "oldest, year-round freshwater field station in North America".[13]
Research and monitoring
Current facilities include more than 60 buildings,[12] with laboratories for biology, limnology, ecology, and other projects. Areas of ongoing research includes lake ecology, conservation genomics, stream, river, and floodplain ecology, microbial ecology, aquatic invasive species, and sensors and sensor networks.[13] It receives research grants from private donors and foundations, and federal grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA.[14] Two environmental sensor networks (LakeNET and RiverNET) monitor and record data from nine meteorological stations.[15] Buoys connected to LakeNET collect data about water quality, wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and solar radiation. Early-warning station sensors use semi-autonomous, environmental DNA (eDNA) technology known as "Digital Droplet PCR" trackers for real-time DNA detection of aquatic invasive species like quagga (Dreissena rostriformis) and zebra (Dreissena polymorpha) mussels.[16]
Education
Graduate students work on research projects with supervision from FLBS faculty.[17] The station also offers summer courses for both undergraduates and graduates offering education in the field.[13] Current and planned summer courses at the station are offered on conservation ecology, aquatic microbial ecology, field ecology, landscape ecology, UAV remove sensing for field ecology, alpine ecology, stream ecology, cryosphere ecology, evolution of animal behavior, forest and fire ecology, and lake ecology.[18] Eight-week summer internships are open and available for college students. Opportunities for K-12 students are open during the summer and the regular school year through a research education program geared towards aquatic ecology.[13] FLBS has six classrooms, cabins, and dormitories for students and staff, along with a dining and meeting area, and boathouse to host research vessels. "Jessie B", the 30-foot research vessel, is named after Jessie M. Bierman, a protege of Elrod and ardent supporter of FLBS who endowed the first professorship in ecology at the station.[19]
Partners
FLBS is located within the region of the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem (CCE). As such, it is a voluntary part of the Crown Managers Partnership (CMP) connecting the state of Montana with the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. The partnership was formalized in 2007. Among other aspects, the management system helps share data and mount an early response to Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS).[20] Other partners include the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.[21]
1 2 3 Vetter, Jeremy (2011). "Rocky Mountain High Science: Teaching, Research, and Nature at Field Stations'. In Vetter, Jeremy (ed.). Knowing Global Environments: New Historical Perspectives on the Field Sciences. Rutgers University Press. pp. 108-134. ISBN978-0-8135-4875-3.
1 2 Elrod, Morton (May 1901). "Limnological investigations at Flathead Lake, Montana and vicinity, July 1899." Transactions of the American Microscopical Society. 22: 68–80. doi:10.2307/3221314.
1 2 3 4 Withrow, Ian (November 2018). "Flathead Lake Biological Station: Sentinel of the Lake Since 1899". Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin. 27 (4): 138–140. doi:10.1002/lob.10273.
↑ Ellis, Bonnie (August 15, 2011). "Research buoys placed in Flathead Lake"Archived 2023-10-17 at the Wayback Machine . Lake County Leader. Retrieved October 15, 2023. Note: Article refers to the deployment of two FLBS meteorological buoys, which are part of the LakeNET system, which includes six other sensor systems plus RiverNET. Data is available online hereArchived 2023-10-17 at the Wayback Machine showing the eight sensors in the LakeNET system.
↑ Lamb, Janelle Leader (Spring 1999). "A Pioneering Spirit"Archived 2022-12-29 at the Wayback Machine . Montanan. 16 (3): 12-13. Print versionArchived 2023-10-22 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved October 21, 2023; Weld, Barbara (Spring 1986). "Bierman endowed chair awarded to Dr. Stanford"Archived 2023-01-20 at the Wayback Machine . Yellow Bay Journal. The Friends of UMBS at Yellow Bay. 3 (1). Note: See p. 179 within the linked archive for a copy of the article, "Jessie Biermann, Maternal and Child Health in Montana, California, the U.S. Children's Bureau, and WHO, 1926-1967, an oral history conducted in 1986 by Jacqueline Parker". Regional Oral History Office. The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1987.
1 2 3 Solberg, Richard A. (August 1963). "The Montana State University Biological Station". American Zoologist. American Society of Zoologists. 3 (3): 346–347. doi:10.1093/icb/3.3.346.
Bansak, Tom (2022). "Montana's Pioneer Renaissance Man". The History of the Flathead Lake Biological Station. Missoula Community Access Television. Missoula Public Library.
Vetter, Jeremy (2011). "Labs in the Field? Rocky Mountain Biological Stations in the Early Twentieth Century". Journal of the History of Biology. Springer. doi:10.1007/s10739-011-9302-8.
Lake County is a county located in the northwest part of the U.S. state of Montana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 31,134. Its county seat is Polson.
Flathead County is a county located in the U.S. state of Montana. At the 2020 census, its population was 104,357, making it the state's fourth most populous county. Its county seat is Kalispell. Its numerical designation is 7. Its northern border is on the state's north border, making it contiguous with the Canada–US border, facing British Columbia.
Bigfork is a census-designated place (CDP) in Flathead County, Montana, United States. It is within Montana's Rocky Mountains. The population was 5,118 at the 2020 census, up from 4,270 in 2010.
Columbia Falls is a city along the Flathead River in Flathead County, Montana, United States. The population was 5,308 at the 2020 census. Columbia Falls has been ranked as one of the best and safest places to live in Montana.
Kalispell is a city in Montana and the county seat of Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2020 census put Kalispell's population at 24,558. In Montana's northwest region, it is the largest city and the commercial center of the Kalispell Micropolitan Statistical Area. The name Kalispell is a Salish word meaning "flat land above the lake".
Somers is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Flathead County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,049 at the 2020 census, nearly double from 556 in the 2000 census.
The Flathead Indian Reservation, located in western Montana on the Flathead River, is home to the Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles tribes – also known as the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. The reservation was created through the July 16, 1855, Treaty of Hellgate.
Fort Peck Lake, or Lake Fort Peck, is a major reservoir in Montana, formed by the Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River. The lake lies in the eastern prairie region of Montana approximately 140 miles (230 km) east of Great Falls and 120 miles (190 km) north of Billings, reaching into portions of six counties.
Flathead Lake is a large natural lake in northwest Montana, United States.
The Flathead River, in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Montana, originates in the Canadian Rockies to the north of Glacier National Park and flows southwest into Flathead Lake, then after a journey of 158 miles (254 km), empties into the Clark Fork. The river is part of the Columbia River drainage basin, as the Clark Fork is a tributary of the Pend Oreille River, a Columbia River tributary. With a drainage basin extending over 8,795 square miles (22,780 km2) and an average discharge of 11,380 cubic feet per second (322 m3/s), the Flathead is the largest tributary of the Clark Fork and constitutes over half of its flow.
The Swan River is a 95-mile (153 km) long, north-flowing river in western Montana in the United States. The river drains a long isolated valley, known as the Swan Valley, between the Swan Range on the east and the Mission Mountains to the west.
The CSKT Bison Range (BR) is a nature reserve on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana established for the conservation of American bison. Formerly called the National Bison Range, the size of the bison herd at the BR is 350 adult bison and welcomes between 50-60 calves per year. Established as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1908, the BR consists of approximately 18,524 acres (7,496 ha) within the Montana valley and foothill grasslands. Management of the site was transferred back to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in 2022 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after more than a century of federal management and nearly two decades of negotiations.
The Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology (PLE) is a year-round ecology field station of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences located in Linesville and South Shenango Township on the shores of Pymatuning Lake in Pennsylvania. The station contains research facilities and equipment, conducts undergraduate education and courses, and serves as center for conferences, symposia, and retreats. The Pyatuning Laboratory hosts researchers from the University of Pittsburgh as well as those from universities throughout the nation and world, which have included, among others, researchers form Duke University, the University of Virginia, the University of Georgia, the University of Miami. Likewise, course instructors at the lab come from the University of Pittsburgh, but also have included instructors from other institutions including Georgia Tech, the University of Connecticut, and the National Aviary. In addition, the University of Pittsburgh has instituted a collaborative program for study at the Pymatuning Lab with other area universities in which students that are enrolled through any of these institutions register, pay tuition, and receive credit at their home institutions. Schools participating in the collaborative program include Clarion University, Edinboro University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Slippery Rock University.
The Swan Range is a mountain range in western Montana in the United States. Its peaks typically rise to around 8,000 to 9,000 feet. The range is bounded by the South Fork Flathead River to the east, the Flathead River to the north and northwest, the Swan River to the west, and lie to the southwest of Glacier National Park, just south of the Canada–US border. It runs about 99 miles (159 km) from north-northwest to south-southeast. Major cities near the Swan Range include Kalispell and Bigfork to the northwest, and Seeley Lake on the south.
The Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum (UMZM) is a natural history facility and zoological collection located on the second floor of the Health Sciences building on the Missoula, Montana campus of the University of Montana.
Wayfarers State Park is a 67-acre (27 ha) public recreation area overlooking Flathead Lake, one-half mile south of Bigfork, Montana. The state park hosts the annual Northern Rockies Paddlefest, which in 2013 attracted over 200 participants.
Morton John Elrod was an American ecologist and professor at the University of Montana. He founded the Flathead Lake Biological Station in 1899. It was established to encourage research and field education and has been the site of numerous long-term biological studies. He was also appointed by the American Bison Society to examine potential reserves in Montana which led to the establishment of the National Bison Range. A keen photographer and researcher, he conducted research and wrote several books on a variety of topics. A number of species have been named in Elrod's honor by researchers.
James Elser is an American ecologist and limnologist. He is Director & Bierman Professor of Ecology, Flathead Lake Biological Station, University of Montana and research professor, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University. He is known for his work in ecological stoichiometry. In 2019, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
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