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| For more information on these science news and feature story tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070. Editor: Beth Gaston Contents of this Tipsheet:
PRESIDENT SIGNS INTO LAW NSF BUDGET FOR 1997NSF's research programs were given a boost when President Clinton signed into law on Sept. 27 the fiscal year 1997 VA, HUD and Independent Agencies appropriations bill. Congress cleared the legislation for his signature earlier in the week. NSF will receive $3.27 billion for 1997 under the new legislation, a modest 2 percent increase -- or $50 million -- above the 1996 total. However, House and Senate conferees ironing out details on the final bill agreed to a $118 million (5.1 percent) hike in the agency's research and related activities for 1997. The measure signed by the President also provides $50 million for large scale academic research instrumentation, plus $1.4 million in contingency funds for the Gemini project's expected tariff requirements. NSF received its requested amount for education programs: $619 million for 1997. Conferees redirected some of the requested funds, including $10 million added to informal science education specifically targeted to the agency's systemic education reform efforts. The bill assures continuity in NSF's programs to start the new fiscal year. Last fall, budget turmoil was caused by delays in passage of several 1996 appropriations bills and government shutdowns. NSF's programs were directly affected by the various delays. [Mary Hanson/Bill Noxon]
CENTRAL PLAINS LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH SITE EXPANDSThe Central Plains Experimental Range Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site in Colorado, one of 18 such NSF LTER sites, is expanding the site to add the Pawnee National Grasslands to its research area. "Adding this 193,000 acres of adjacent land will provide scientists with a better representation of the shortgrass steppe ecosystem" and increase the land area available for ecological studies," said Scott Collins, director of NSF's LTER program. " In a recent analysis, Central Plains researchers suggested that the site, within its previous boundaries, did not adequately represent areas with fine-textured soils. The Pawnee National Grasslands includes a wide variety of soils and soil textures; a broad range of annual precipitation; active, large prairie dog towns; abandoned cultivated fields; river ecosystems; and two research natural areas that will be protected from grazing. With the new addition, the LTER site now includes some 23 percent of the shortgrass steppe in the central Great Plains region. The site enlargement will provide LTER scientists with new possibilities for future research. High priority projects in the next few years include evaluation of "keystone" species, such as population genetics of blue grama, the dominant plant of the shortgrass steppe. [Cheryl Dybas]
UNDERWATER OBSERVATORY LINKS THE OCEAN AND THE LABORATORYA new NSF underwater observatory will soon enable scientists to obtain information about a variety of processes taking place in real-time in the coastal ocean -- without going to sea. The Long-Term Ecosystem Observatory rests in 15 meters (roughly 49 feet) of water off the coast of New Jersey, hence its name "LEO-15." A joint effort of scientists and engineers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and Rutgers University in New Jersey, LEO-15 is linked to shore by a fiber-optic cable buried under the sea floor. "Advances in telecommunications and underwater robotics, and use of the Internet, will enable scientists anywhere in the world to obtain real-time data from the observatory, and to adjust their experiments based on the data they receive," explains Larry Clark, program director in NSF's ocean sciences division. Remotely operated vehicles will eventually be deployed from the observatory to make observations, manipulate experiments, track ocean frontal systems, and monitor episodic events as they occur. [Cheryl Dybas] NSF is an independent federal agency responsible for non-medical research in all fields of science and engineering, with an annual budget of about $3 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states, through grants to more than 2,000 universities and institutions nationwide. NSF receives more than 50,000 requests for funding annually, including at least 30,000 new proposals.
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