MRI: Acquisition of Equipment to Support Research and Education in Natural Resources.

Paul Smiths College (PSC) is a small undergraduate institution that recently began granting bachelors degrees in the Natural Resource Sciences, Biology, Forestry, and Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences.  Concurrent with this growth in our academic programs we have also recently developed the Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI), a multidisciplinary research, outreach, and education program whose mission is to create scientifically-sound knowledge about terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and human relationships with the environment, enhance the educational opportunities available for undergraduate students and to engage the Adirondack Community in ways that facilitate the stewardship of our natural resources.  This proposal funded a suite of modern laboratory instrumentation that will support research training of students in several disciplines and research and monitoring projects in aquatic and forest ecosystems.  Aquatic ecosystem projects include (1) the Adirondack Lakes Assessment Program, (2) in-depth investigations of pollutant contributions to surface waters, and (3) investigating and regional monitoring of invasive species.  Forest ecosystem projects include (1) forest ecosystem responses to environmental stresses, (2) forest ecosystem responses to management practices, and (3) watershed scale monitoring of ecosystem processes.  PSC is designing curriculum that will help students develop an understanding of the scientific process during their tenure at the college, and students must have the opportunity to use high quality equipment as they learn to design experiments and definitively test hypotheses.  The equipment provides a great leap forward in the research capabilities of AWI and PSC, and thus we anticipate being able to more effectively compete for grants and also attract other institutions for collaboration.  We also expect that this modern laboratory will attract more students from underrepresented groups, as well as serve as a valuable recruitment and retention tool for high quality faculty.