Cedar Point Biological Station is a significant protected natural area which supports high quality research on grassland ecosystems. A key resource associated with Cedar Point is Arapaho Prairie, a controlled access, regulated research site in the unique Nebraska Sandhills ecosystem. Arapaho Prairie is owned by the Nature Conservancy and managed through a long-term lease agreement by Cedar Point Biological Station to provide logistical support for manipulative research. Two key facilities will be constructed with funds received from the present project. These will greatly facilitate accurate and effective site management and database development/maintenance as well as support and encourage highly productive research enterprises into the dynamics of grassland processes. Facilities to be constructed include: (1) a small preparatory building to provide protected, on-site workspace to support fieldwork. Sophisticated electronic and physiological equipment required by many studies can be more effectively employed with the availability of such a facility. (2) Arapaho Prairie will be gridded with permanent reference points and key biotic and abiotic features mapped. These features will then be synthesized in a Geographic Information System (GIS) which provides a computerized method for storing and referencing spatial relationships among these key attributes. Future retrieval of known patterns as well as detection of presently unrecognized patterns for a variety of central, biologically relevant features of the site will then be possible. The construction of this GIS will prove immediately valuable for preserving, mananging, providing access to, and fostering research at this nationally important research site.
