The overarching research goal is to utilize Buck Island Ranch as a real-world laboratory to quantify the biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by working ranches. Our work provides the fundamental understanding of how we can maintain and improve ecosystem services, minimize tradeoffs, all while sustaining an economically productive agroecosystem. My research program is focused on: 1) the quantification of multiple ecosystem services provided by working ranches, 2) understanding how ranch management practices affects multiple ecosystem services and disservices, and 3) the drivers and threats to ecosystem services, such as invasive species and climate change. The overarching goal of our work is to discover innovative science-based solutions for sustainable agriculture that is profitable, delivers multiple ecosystem services to society, and reduces negative environmental impacts.

I am actively engaged in multiple national and global science networks including the USDA Long-term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) network, Nutrient Network (nutnet), Disturbance, Resource Addition, and Recovery (Dragnet), Phenocam Network, Grazing Exclosure Consortium, and Community Responses to Resource Experiments (CORRE https://corredata.weebly.com/). These networks have allowed the Agroecology program to scale up the place-based research and provide data from subtropical grasslands to large national and global scale network analyses.

Broadly, my research program is focused on environmental and economic sustainability of ranches in the headwaters of the Everglades and is underpinned by basic and applied research in Ecosystem services, Ecology, Biogeochemistry, and Hydrology. 

Elizabeth “Betsey” Boughton, Ph.D.

Director of Agroecology, Senior Research Biologist 

Dr Amartya Saha has worked as an ecohydrologist with academia, government agencies and NGOs across North and South America, Africa, and South Asia for over two decades. He is interested in the sustainable management of watersheds to ensure water flow and quality in waterbodies, thereby maintaining aquatic/riparian biodiversity and ecosystem services. 

At ABS, Amartya serves as the technical lead for water and nutrient retention projects in the Northern Everglades Basin in collaboration with state agencies. He is a member of the USDA Long-term Agroecological Research water quantity/quality research groups.  His recent research includes the development of low-cost evapotranspiration measurement techniques in graminoid and wetland plant communities, nutrient cycling on ranchlands and groundwater movement in collaboration with the University of Florida. He also oversees installation/maintenance/troubleshooting of environmental monitoring instrumentation across ABS and other ranches/SFWMD properties that are part of the Northern Everglades Payment for Ecosystem Services program. 

Early on, Amartya switched careers from engineering to environmental conservation, and apart from contributing to scientific understanding and extension with government agencies, he has also started citizen science programs on biological water quality monitoring using aquatic invertebrates. On some weekends he leads kayak-based shoreline clean up trips in Biscayne Bay and Miami Beach. 


Amartya Saha, Ph.D.

Ecohydrologist/Instrumentation Specialist

Bachelors of Science in Agriculture from the University of Florida, 1993
Master of Business Administration from Capella University, 2018
Beef Quality Assurance Certified 

Gene Lollis has served tirelessly as Buck Island Ranch's manager since 1996. His passion for sustainable agriculture drives the ranch and research on the property to be practical and applicable to the everyday cattle producer. 
Gene is a sixth generation Floridian who has spent his life in ranching and agriculture. In addition to managing the ranch, Gene ensures that the Agro-Ecology research conducted on the property is conducted with sustainability and real-world applicability.
Gene stays active in several associations outside of Archbold including the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Florida Cattlemen's Association (Past President 2020-2021), US Animal Health Association, Florida Cattle Ranchers, and the Florida Farm Bureau.

Gene Lollis, M.B.A.

Ranch Manager

Moved to US from China in 2016, I graduated from University of Central Florida in 2019 with a MSc focusing on plant community and Invasion ecology. Currently stationing at buck island ranch mostly managing NEPES (North Everglades Payment for Environmental Services) project -a watershed storage management program funded by South Florida Water Management District. Other duties also include providing instructions and supervision over general daily lab operations and troubleshooting and maintenance of field instruments. Wildlife and nature photography are my to-go activities off work plus long distance running and hiking with my Teddy Roosevelt Terrier whose name is Brama!

Haoyu Li, M.S.

Environmental Specialist 

Many of Florida’s freshwater ecosystems such as the Everglades evolved with extremely low levels of P in surface lands and waters. Most native plants are not able to take up ‘excess phosphorus’ delivered from fertilizer. In contrast, some algae and several invasive plant species can grow fast under high P conditions, and then take over, affecting natural ecosystems and human health.   Ranchlands make up 1 million acres of the 2.6 million-acre headwaters of the Everglades, the lands and waters that drain south into Lake Okeechobee. Even though nutrient loads from cattle pastures are low relative to other land uses (on a per acre basis) the large acreage of ranches in the watershed make them a significant part to the overall nutrient loads at the landscape scale. Therefore, ranches have been a focus for improved P control strategies.    Since 2017, we have been investigating a forage harvest nutrient removal project in one of our Northern Everglades Payment for Environmental Services (NE-PES) projects. Water is pumped into a fallow field (formerly a citrus grove) from the Harney Pond Canal (C-41 Canal). This project is a flow through system where water is used to irrigate and grow forage grasses such as Limpo Grass. The idea behind the project is that grass growth will take up P, incorporate it into plant tissue which is harvested and baled as feed for cows.

Forage production harvest and quality (N, P), Soil carbon and nutrients, Water quality, stage and quantity pumped in/out of 188 acre project area (aka ‘Grove’), Plant composition

Data and Analysis Types

Primary Location(s)

Years Active

Project Details

After four harvests (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022), over 2,000 tons of forage grass was harvested from the 180-acre field, containing almost 12,769 pounds of phosphorus. Because we are now harvesting some of our own forage, we import less supplemental winter feed, which is another significant source of P inputs into the ranch.  

Major Findings & Impact

Assessing feasibility of pumping nutrient-rich water from C-41 canal to irrigate forage grasses in an abandoned citrus grove and track nutrient removal via harvested forage.

Harvesting nutrients

Major Findings & Impact

Project Details

Related People

Collaborators

Funders