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 Archbold Biological Station maintains a fully equipped Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory using ARC/INFO Software. ARC/VIEW software is available at all individual laboratories and at the Station’s remote sites. The GIS Lab computer system is fully integrated with the Station’s LAN operating with Windows NT. Original equipment and software for the GIS system was acquired in fall 1990 with support from the National Science Foundation's Division of  Instrumentation and Resources, and has been updated several times to its current configuration.

GIS opens the door to analysis and portrayal of spatially referenced data. Maps are stored as digital data in the form of points, lines, grid cells, and polygons.

GIS provides scientists at Archbold with powerful capacity to store, combine, analyze, and map ecological data across space and time. Dominant themes available for study by GIS at the Station include topography, soil types, vegetation zones, fire boundaries, rare plant distributions, animal territories and nest sites, and experimental trapping grids. Ranch GIS themes exist for topography, vegetation zones and wetlands, and raptor habitat use. Station and Ranch management are greatly aided by the mapping capabilities and database structure of GIS. Virtually all long-term ecological projects at the Station make use of this vital technological advance

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