biology

Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology

Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology rather than just read about it. In short: The Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology (PLE) is a year-round ecology field station of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences located in Linesville and South Shenango Township on the shores of Pymatuning Lake in Pennsylvania. The station contains research facilities and equipment, conducts undergraduate education and courses, and serves as center for conferences, symposia, and retreats.

Key takeaways

Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology (PLE) is a year-round ecology field station of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Biological Sciences located in Linesville and South Shenango Township on the shores of Pymatuning Lake in Pennsylvania. The station contains research facilities and equipment, conducts undergraduate education and courses, and serves as center for conferences, symposia, and retreats. The Pyatuning Laboratory hosts researchers from the University of Pittsburgh as well as those from universities throughout the nation and world, which have included, among others, researchers form Duke University, the University of Virginia, the University of Georgia, the University of Miami. Likewise, course instructors at the lab come from the University of Pittsburgh, but also have included instructors from other institutions including Georgia Tech, the University of Connecticut, and the National Aviary. In addition, the University of Pittsburgh has instituted a collaborative program for study at the Pymatuning Lab with other area universities in which students that are enrolled through any of these institutions register, pay tuition, and receive credit at their home institutions. Schools participating in the collaborative program include Clarion University, Edinboro University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and Slippery Rock University.

History

The University of Pittsburgh established a biological field station at Presque Isle, Pennsylvania on the shores of Lake Erie in 1926. However, the creation of Presque Isle State Park crowded out the modest field station, and in 1949 the field station moved to Pymatuning State Park. The University of Pittsburgh obtained a lease from the state for a 13-acre (5.3 ha) wooded peninsula adjacent to the Pennsylvania State Fish Hatchery which became known as the Sanctuary Lake Site. The first building was constructed on this site in 1952. Over time more research buildings were erected on the site in order to satisfy the educational and research needs of the University of Pittsburgh and visiting faculty and students from other colleges and universities in Western Pennsylvania. By 1965, the university had outgrown the Sanctuary Lake Site facilities and it obtained a second lease from the Pymatuning State Park for a dedicated housing site. As the Housing Site expanded and developed, the Sanctuary Lake Site was dedicated to maintaining modern research and teaching facilities. Today, this site has modern facilities for housing instructors, researchers, and students as well as a Dining Hall, Kitchen, and Recreation Hall. Major renovations and building projects were undertaken in the mid-1990s that resulted in a 30% increase in space and included the installation of numerous pieces of equipment and lab renovations. Among the projects was a new $81,000 1,700 square feet (160 m2) administration building with a library and a $102,000 faculty housing unit that was completed in 1997. Since 2000, the University of Pittsburgh has renovated and expanded the facilities, as well as adding a significant increase in land. This has included the acquisition of three research properties, Wallace Woods, Beagle Road, and the Livingston Farm, that total 360 acres (150 ha). In addition, the university has constructed five additional labs. In addition, the lab has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to construct a new $1.2 million, 3,600-square-foot (330 m2) laboratory building to be completed in 2014 that will contain three new research labs including new animal care space for bird researches and sterile lab space for molecular and microbial biology. This facility will also be open to K-12 public school students when the universities are on hiatus.

Facilities

The lab and teaching facilities of the Pymatuning Laboratory are located within public lands consisting of an 11,000-acre (4,500 ha) Wildlife Sanctuary and Propagation area owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In addition, the Pymatuning Laboratory owns 360 acres (150 ha) of research sites that includes tracts of forest, successional field, and wetland along Linesville Creek in the Pymatuning watershed, and another tract of successional meadow, designated for experimental plantings and manipulations, a few miles from the laboratory site. An old-growth forest preserve of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy also is managed by the Lab. Facilities include 10 research labs, cabins, dormitories, a dining hall, and lecture rooms. The lab is also stocked with a variety of equipment for research as well as recreational purposes.

Sanctuary Lake Site

The Sanctuary Lake Site is the original research site for the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology since 1949 and is situated on Sanctuary Lake, a protected waterway, which several of the original classrooms overlook. This 13-acre (5.3 ha) site contains eight research laboratories, a stockroom, environmental chambers, a −40 °C (−40 °F) freezer, wireless internet, a computer lab, and 24-hour emergency power back-up. There is also a library and a large lecture hall that can accommodate more than 100 people.

Donald S. Wood Field Lab The Donald S. Wood Field Lab, previously known as the Livingston Road Laboratory and affectionately called "the farm", is the newest facility at PLE and contains 134 acres (54 ha) of field and forest, offering a variety of venues for observation or experimentation. In addition, there is a 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) building containing aquatic and terrestrial research laboratories, a large garage for storage, two water wells, temperature controlled rooms, offices, restrooms, internet access, and a modern security system.

Beagle Road Site The Beagle Road Site is a 23-acre (9.3 ha) site that supports an old-field community and is currently the location for a variety of old-field and aquatic mesocosm experiments.

Wallace Woods Wallace Woods is a 26-acre (11 ha) site that contains a fairly mature second-growth forest. It also includes a stretch of Linesville Creek for aquatic study. The vegetation of this site has been particularly well studied over the years, allowing providing significant potential for future research projects.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology

In research: Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Ecological experiments, Forest research institutes, Nature centers in Pennsylvania, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology in simple terms?

Why does Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology.