Archbold Biological Station (ABS) is an independent ecological research facility located in south-central Florida. ABS conducts and promotes long-term ecological research. In 1988 ABS became proprietor of the 10,200 acre Buck Island Ranch, 8 miles east of the main ABS property on the Istokpoga Prairie, and established the John D. MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center. Dr. John Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of ABS, proposes installation of a Geographic Information System (GIS), which is a combined database manager and mapping computer system. ABS has hired a full-time GIS technician to computerize a variety of maps and geographically-referenced datasets (including the history of fires on the property) and to help resident and visiting scientists utilize this new facility in their research. The proposed GIS installation will have an important impact on research activities at the Archbold Biological Station. Many new investigators will establish research programs at ABS because of this new computing capability, and the current group of resident and visiting investigators will be able to explore their data and design new studies at new levels of sophistication. For example, distribution maps of plant and animal species will be digitized and analyzed relative to soil type and the recency of fires in each habitat. Biological data will be integrated with hydrologic, topographic, geochemical, and historical data, yielding many new insights into ecological processes.
