A 1.5 ha section of the station was taken out of production in 2011 and allowed to naturalize, in order to expand ecological research. The old field plant community that has established will be used for experiments in plant and soil ecology and biogeochemistry, and it is anticipated that it will increase the diversity of insects and birds at the site. Partial rainout shelters are being erected in several subplots by the Henry lab as part of a globally-coordinated network experiment examining the effects of drought on plant communities. Other plots are being established to study the effects of increased atmospheric nitrogen deposition on plant communities.
