Every year about a dozen researchers come to Great Basin National Park to learn more about a specific part of the park. The National Park Service (NPS) encourages science in the parks, and realize that national parks serve as outdoor laboratories. All research in the park requires a permit, which can be filled out online at: http://science.nature.nps.gov/permits/index.html.

Some of the research taking place in the park this summer includes:

· Fire history and climate change
· Inventory of butterflies and moths
· Genetics of Eriogonum (buckwheat) and penstemon
· Bryophyte (moss) inventory
· Small mammal inventory
· Vascular plant inventory
· Macroinvertebrate inventory
· Johnson Lake sediment coring to compare sediments in a nearly pristine lake with those near Fallon, Nevada.