SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — University of Notre Dame researchers hope a $1 million environmental research center that will be built at a northern Indiana park will help answer questions about how to minimize the impacts of humans on the environment.
The university is leasing 28 acres at St. Patrick’s Park in St. Joseph County for a field-based environmental research facility where scientists can study an ecosystem that includes an interconnected pond, stream and wetland.
Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative director David Lodge says the facility will allow scientists to adjust conditions and see how the environment reacts, such as changing the temperature of a pond or adding or subtracting a species to see what happens.
The facility is scheduled to be complete in the fall and experiments will begin in the spring.
