The Year at a Glance The
year of 2002 has been a great time of activity and change for the
Bull Shoals Field Station. We have been busy continuing the work
that was started when the Field Station was established three years ago. We have been developing new projects
to improve the site and provide more facilities for the wide range
of classes that visit the field station each year. We hosted a
variety of successful annual events and established new annual
events to increase the public’s knowledge about the activities of
the field station. Research is still a priority at the field
station with the continuation of a number of projects and the
development of new projects. Education has been emphasized with an
increase in the types of educational opportunities conducted
throughout the year. We are also looking into future plans to
provide accommodations for visiting researchers and classes. All
of this was accompanied by the advent of a new Director, Dr.
Janice Schnake Greene, and a new manager, Tina M. Tamme.Back to the Top
Public
Relations
Even
though the BSFS has been around for a few years, there are still a
lot of people that do not know we exist, why we exist, or what we
can do for them. Therefore, part of this year’s mission has been
to increase public awareness. We targeted researchers at The
Missouri Natural Resources Conference and the Seminar and barbeque
event. We targeted teachers through the various teacher workshops,
the Back to School Bash sponsored by MDC, and at the Missouri
Environmental Education Association Annual Conference. Finally, we
targeted various groups of the general public at the Ozarks
Celebration Festival, the Biology Department’s Open House, and the
Open House located at the Field Station. Back to the top
Classes
A great variety of classes visited the BSFS this year. From
Missouri State, we had 5 different classes and approximately 125 students
attend field trips at the field station. These classes included
Plant Ecology, Identification of Woody Plants, Mammalogy,
Herpetology, and Plant Taxonomy. Two teacher
workshops were held this year at the field station. The first was
a week long workshop held in June that included 21 Missouri Middle
and High School Science Teachers. The
FIELDS Project (Field
Instructional Experiences for Lesson Development in Science) was
funded by Missouri’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education and
the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professional Development Program.
Teachers spent the week exploring major aspects of ecology in the
Ozarks including plant and animal biodiversity, aquatic ecology,
geology and weather. This group met again in October for the first
of 3 total follow-up weekends. Instructors included faculty and
staff from Missouri State, staff from Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC)
and the James River Basin Partnership. The second
teacher workshop, sponsored by an Environmental Education grant
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was held on a
weekend in mid-September and included Middle and High School
teachers from Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas. The
Science
in the Outdoors Workshop included 9 participants. Instructors
included faculty and staff from Missouri State, MDC, Arkansas Game and Fish,
and the Greater Ozarks Audubon Society. We have a second offering
of this workshop scheduled in
April, 2003. Finally, in
June, a group of middle school students from
Study Middle School,
Springfield, were invited to participate in various activities
that taught them about geology, water quality, animals, and plants
at the field station. They attended a total of 4 days of classes
filled with various activities. Missouri State faculty, staff, and graduate
students served as instructors. Back to the top
Research
Water quality of Bull Shoals Lake
has been an issue of researchers at the field station since it was
established. We have continued to monitor the water quality of the
lake by sampling at a site by the field station this year. Drs.
Alexander Wait and Wendy Anderson have also continued their
research at the field station this year. They are looking at the
effects of fire and herbivory on oak-hickory forests, and
resources provided to terrestrial habitats by adjacent aquatic
systems. Dr. Brain Greene has also continued his work on amphibian
and reptile surveys and cottonmouth life-history research. In
addition, there are two students conducting research at the field
station. Doug Aubry, Missouri State graduate student, is looking at the
effects of fire on seedling and saplings. Ben Parnell, Drury
undergraduate, is conducting ongoing research on lakeshore
permeability.The field station
continues to provide monthly weather data and summaries from the
weather station.
In collaboration with Dr. Georgianna Saunders from Missouri State, we
have established lesson plans to provide teachers with ideas on
how to use the data in their classrooms. This information was also
presented at the teacher workshops. Back to the top
Special Events
This year was filled with annual events and new events at
the field station. During the months of April and May, we
conducted a clean-up day and
Open House. The clean-up day
consisted of faculty and students from Missouri State helping with various
projects. This year, we worked on cleaning in and around the house
and establishing a naming system for the roads and posting
markers. The Open House was also a successful event that brought
various members of the local community, political representatives,
and Missouri State faculty together to learn more about the area and the
activities conducted by Missouri State. This year was the first
Symposium and Barbeque at the Field Station. We invited professors
from various local universities and Missouri State faculty to hear
presentations on the research that has been conducted at the field
station. We had nine talks, and 40 people attended the event.
Among attendees were professors and students from Missouri State, Southwest
Baptist University, Central Missouri State University, and Evangel
University. After the talks, we held a BBQ to give visiting
professors a chance to ask questions about research, possible
collaboration efforts, and potential class field trips.
Back to the top
Improvements
With the increase in education and research at the BSFS,
there is a need to accommodate more people for overnight stays.
During the year, we have been presented with many problems
attached to accommodating more people. First, we are in the
process of developing a new long-range plan to address the Army
Corps of Engineers’ Request to have less development on the site.
During this time, another plan was considered. There are a number
of houses right outside of the MDC land, about a 5 minute drive to
the BSFS and two are for sale. It has become our intention and top
priority to purchase one of these houses. All of these houses are
sold with an amount of land which would provide the opportunity to
expand on this land rather than disrupt the area around the field
station. This would provide us with accommodations that already
have heat, electricity, sanitation, and a phone line; none of
which are currently available at the house. Finally, the biggest
hurdle to these problems is the issue of money. We are currently
focusing much of our efforts on raising funds to purchase an
existing house. The second area of focus
is the construction of a picnic pavilion at the field station.
This would allow us a place for a class to eat as well as hold
class in the case of inclement weather. Plans are in the works to
have this built in Spring, 2003. Finally, we are working to renovate the house. The
structure is sound, but there are a lot of improvements that are
necessary for it to be habitable. The greatest needs are
electricity, running water, and sanitation. We currently have a
generator in the process of being refurbished. This would provide
enough electricity for the house, but the house would need to
first be rewired. Back to the top
Summer RAs Matt Stone, Caleb Hickman, and Kyle Barrett were hired as
research assistants for the summer months. They were responsible
for routine maintenance at the Drury House as well as other
projects at the field station. They constructed benches for the
barbeque pit, a pathway to the outhouses, and maintained the
weather station. In addition they were responsible for aiding in
the beginning construction of a model pond near the Drury House.
This pond will be used to educate teachers on pond habitats as
well as provide habitat for many invertebrates and will serve as a
temporary breeding area for many amphibians. They also assisted in
an education-outreach program directed towards middle school
students and a program that educated public school teachers in
outdoor-classroom techniques (FIELDS project).Back to the top
Water quality of the Upper White River
system
By Kristen Pattinson
The upper
White River system includes five reservoirs (Beaver, Table Rock,
Taneycomo, Bull Shoals, and Norfolk). Rapid development along this
region has brought up concerns about the health of the lakes. Drs.
John Havel and Russell Rhodes and Research Specialist, Kristen
Pattinson, are studying water quality in two of these lakes, Table
Rock and Bull Shoals. The water quality aspect we are looking at
is examining the types of phytoplankton (algae) and zooplankton in
the system. Some phytoplankton, when they are in high numbers
(i.e. blue-greens and some dinoflagellates), can form toxic
blooms.At Bull Shoals Lake, an
extensive survey was conducted during 1999 – 2001 looking at
spatial distribution over the entire lake and seasonal succession
at two main sites: 3 (Bull Shoals Field Station) and 18 (near the
dam). Table Rock Lake
is an ongoing project looking at the James River Arm. Seven sites
were chosen corresponding to the lake markers (9 – 15). Site 9 is
up-lake near Cape Fair and site 15 is down-lake where the White
River meets the James River. In both studies zooplankton and
phytoplankton were collected, Secchi (to measure transparency) and
depth readings were recorded at all sites. During the spatial survey, the phytoplankton
were generally higher in the tributaries, than in the main stem of
the river. During the seasonal dynamics, site 3 had consistently
higher total algae than site 18. The zooplankton were not much
different between the two sites, total zooplankton at site 3 were
generally in low abundance during the latter half of 1999, but
rapidly achieved a high density (180 per L) in April-May of 2000,
and site 18 showed a less pronounced pattern, although the
zooplankton achieved their highest density during one date in
October (120 per L). Site 3 had a lower Secchi value (lower
transparency) than that at site 18 (mean Secchi depths = 1.9 and
5.3 m respectively), although this characteristic was highly
variable over time, particularly at site 18 (range 2.6-12 m).
Patterns for phytoplankton and zooplankton at Table Rock Lake are
not known because the sampling and analyzing of samples have not
been completed at this time Reservoirs, such as Bull Shoals Lake,
are dynamic habitats and their large watersheds, often in areas
under development, making them sensitive to eutrophication. With
increase in rapid urban development and nutrient enrichment from
confined animal feeding operations, more problems can arise.
Continuing monitoring of this multiple reservoir chain is
important to determine if eutrophication is becoming a problem for
this area.Back to the top
Bull
Shoals Field Station
