SCIENCE | CONSERVATION | EDUCATION

Archbold is known worldwide for the quality of its field science.

Some of the longest-term studies in the world are conducted here, explaining demography and changes over time in plant and animal populations.

Our environmental records date back more than 80 years and have documented the dramatic trends in fire, hydrology, and weather that drive Florida ecosystems.

Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch serves as one of the nation’s leading research centers addressing the sustainability of agroecosystems.

And our use of cutting-edge technologies and data management is supplying our “big science” data to numerous global networks.

At Archbold, science is uniquely coupled with conservation, specifically informing conservation action.

Our research is first class, successfully addressing many of the biggest questions in science, and also drives critical conservation actions on the ground.

The direct coupling of science and conservation distinguishes Archbold from much of traditional academia. While most conservation management is arguably science-based, conservation organizations rely on Archbold to conduct the science they need.

Our 20,000 acres are an extraordinary natural laboratory, encompassing one of the rarest habitats in North America, the Florida scrub, the vast grasslands of a full-scale working cattle ranch, and extensive wetland ecosystems under restoration. The ecological and economic reality of managing these lands gives our research a unique perspective.

Situated crucially in the Headwaters of the Everglades, we have built an expanded network of additional research sites throughout this globally important 2.6 million-acre watershed and beyond.

We test conservation outcomes and work with an ever-expanding network of conservation partners, from local to global, to put our scientific findings into action.

Conservation informs our science.

We work with land managers and landowners to better understand their challenges and frame emerging scientific approaches for the problems they want our help to solve.

How to save the rarest of the rare plants and animals? What is needed to sustain grasslands and working farms and ranches? Where to prioritize protection of the wildlife corridors that unite Florida’s conservation lands? And how best to address the impacts of climate change?

Our conservation science has special relevance for the world’s biodiversity hotspots and centers of endemism, for critical global grasslands, for climate change modeling and forecasting, and for wildlife corridors being established across many other nations.

For example, for species such as the endangered Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, decades of Archbold science conducted at Avon Park Air Force Range Sentinel Landscape has improved chances of nesting success for this rarest of birds, enhanced management of dry prairie habitat, and helped the United States Department of Defense meet their regulatory requirements and align their military mission with conservation goals.