This Academic Research Facilities Modernization Program (ARFMP) award from the Research Facilities Office provides funds to Point Reyes Bird Observatory for the renovation and repair of the Palomarin Field Research Station which houses the Program of Terrestrial and Theoretical Ecology's research and research training activities on terrestrial birds and their habitats in the areas of population dynamics, evolutionary ecology, and behavioral and physiological ecology of resident and migrant species. This building was constructed in 1950 and has not been renovated since that time. The ARFMP grant of $151,000 and $151,000 provided by the grantee as cost sharing will be used to modernize these research and research training facilities. This project will address the need to improve the current research infrastructure by correcting deficiencies in the current facility's foundation, roof, furnace, septic system, and plumbing; by upgrading the electrical system and weather equipment; reducing the danger of fire, water damage, and rodent damage to the buildings; and by installing an advanced research laboratory. In this laboratory, it will be possible to obtain and process blood samples as well as to analyze avian behavior and energy budgets. This award contributes to the infrastructure of science by providing an improved environment for the conduct of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory's internationally-recognized, productive, long-term interdisciplinary research studies and for the training of graduate students from universities all over the nation with needs to collaborate in terrestrial and theoretical ecology. Student interns trained in these laboratories have an excellent record of professional placement nationally and internationally, and, as a result of this project, they will have access to more sophisticated field and laboratory techniques than are currently available. Students trained in these laboratories are in demand in both basic and applied fields. The importance of the applied research conducted at Point Reyes will increase as more national and international attention is paid to the ecological consequences of global warming, the biological diversity crisis, and the impact of the destruction of tropical and subtropical forests on northern hemisphere migrants.
