What is Field Biology?

Field Biology can take many forms, but the goal always is to understand how living organisms function in their natural environments. The tools for conducting field research can be as simple as a pencil and a notebook, or as complicated as sequencing and analyzing DNA; modern field biology often integrates data collected outdoors in an organism’s environment with molecular lab work and computer-based modeling. On any given day, scientific research in Field Biology can be exciting, exhausting, thrilling, boring, pleasant, tedious, a walk in the park, a scramble up a mountain, a slog through a stream. For us in the CEFB it is always rewarding.

Learn more about the work we do and who we are!

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Nastasia Disotell

Graduate Research Assistant

I chose to continue my education within the CEFB because it was where I first started my journey as a researcher. My advisor Dr. Johansen guided me through as an undergrad to assist on projects her graduates were involved in and then helped to transition me to a graduate position myself. My experiences and opportunities here have helped to mold me into the researcher I am today and I couldn't be more grateful.

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Community invited to free milkweed planting workshop at Austin Peay

Now is the perfect time to start milkweed plants! To help you get started on planting and nurturing these pollinator-friendly plants, members of the Clarksville Sustainability Board, Clarksville Healthy Yards and Austin Peay State University's Center of Excellence for Field Biology are sponsoring a February planting for pollinators event.

Center of Excellence for Field Biology, Clarksville Sustainability Board team up to form Healthy Yards program

The Center of Excellence for Field Biology at Austin Peay State University has partnered with the Clarksville Sustainability Board to offer a new program to help residents add more native plants and pollinators to local yards.

Austin Peay to host annual Tennessee Herpetological Society conference

This year's annual meeting of the Tennessee Herpetological Society will be at Austin Peay State University, and the event is open to the public to see research presentations from across the state about the reptiles and amphibians of Tennessee and Kentucky.