During Frances Archbold Hufty's tenure as chairman of the board from 1976 to 2010, Archbold Expeditions acquired additional properties and expanded its programs, strengthening links among research, conservation, and education. In 1983, the purchase of 240 acres at the north end of the Station, including the 90-acre sinkhole Lake Annie, was strongly supported by Frances and her husband Page Hufty, and a long-term study of the lake's biological, chemical, and physical properties began, with continuous monthly sampling revealing striking variations in temperature and color associated with annual rainfall; Lake Annie is now part of a global research network of lakes. In 1988, Archbold Expeditions acquired a lease of the nearby 10,500-acre Buck Island Ranch from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, establishing the MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center to study the ecological and economic sustainability of working cattle ranches and the role of agriculture in conserving the Northern Everglades region. As scrub habitat conservation became imperative, Archbold expanded research on rare plants and animals to multiple locations along the Lake Wales Ridge, including a study that documented a 20-year decline in Florida Scrub-jays in the nearby Placid Lakes subdivision, and since 1990 Archbold has partnered with the Avon Park Air Force Range to support compatible military use and conservation. In 2002, a major gift from Frances Archbold Hufty enabled the purchase of the 3,648-acre Archbold Reserve on the Station's western border, connecting the Station with neighboring conservation lands and supporting new restoration ecology research on former cattle ranch land to guide wetland and agricultural land restoration. By the 1980s, demand for dry sandy soils from the citrus industry and then housing had so reduced Florida scrub habitat on the Lake Wales Ridge that it was classified as globally imperiled, and after a 1989 conference at Archbold proposed a network of scrub preserves, the conserved area of Florida scrub habitat tripled; more than 100,000 acres of natural lands on the Ridge are now protected, and Archbold's studies have helped prioritize protection and guide management, while research on threatened and endangered species at Avon Park Air Force Range has provided data allowing military operations and conservation needs to coexist.