This project will underwrite the construction of a research laboratory on the Nelson Environmental Study Area. The facility will contain standard wet laboratories; animal behavior room with an adjoining observation booth; two general purpose laboratory rooms for activities not requiring wet laboratory facilities; a room for storage of field equipment; a computer/meteorology room; office and conference room. The facility will support experimental ecology in five major areas: small mammal population biology, plant population biology and physiological ecology, mechanisms of secondary succession, air-ecosystem interactions, and dynamics of aquatic ecosystems. The building will enhance current research programs, increase the efficiency of field/laboratory interactive measurements, make possible the development of now lines of research now foreclosed because of the lack of a research laboratory, and make the KER more accessible to the national scientific community.
