Facilities and resources

The department is placed at four different localities, in the Botanical garden, at Medicinarberget, and at the two marine research stations Kristineberg and Tjärnö that are run by Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences.

Botanical garden

In the Botanical garden research and teaching related to plant biology, marine organisms and ecosystems, in particular what mechanisms and processes regulate the organisms and the functions they provide, and environmental science are conducted. This includes studies of molecular life processes in plants, the evolution and systematics of plants and fungi as well as the alpine plant ecology. Other important topics are the biological diversity and influence of climate, carbon dioxide and ozone on forests and cultivated land. In addition, emission of greenhouse gases and air pollution exposure are significant areas of activity. We also work extensively with the effect of toxic compounds in aquatic ecosystems on algae, fish and other organisms.

Medicinareberget

The Zoology building is located at Medicinareberget. In this building research is conducted within three subjects; Animal ecology, Biology with an emphasis on Systematics and Biodiversity and Zoophysiology. These span a broad spectrum of zoology.

Kristineberg and Tjärnö

The Department have access to two state-of-the-art marine laboratories (including research vessels, lodging and restaurants) at Kristineberg and Tjärnö.

Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences at Kristineberg
 

Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences at Tjärnö

These two laboratories form the marine infrastructure organisation Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences, with direct access to many different marine environments and with excellent laboratory facilities offering outstanding opportunities for marine research and education. The Lovén centre is a dedicated infrastructure and service organisation for marine science and education. The Lovén centre is the host of many researchers from different departments but the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences is the dominant department at the Lovén centre in terms of permanent researchers and we also have administrative and technical staff at both Kristineberg and Tjärnö.

The marine laboratories at Kristineberg and Tjärnö with their well equipped laboratories, thermo constant rooms (CT-rooms) and outdoor facilities, all with running seawater of high capacity and quality, are essential for the research performance at the Department. The easy access to a range of marine environments offers excellent opportunities for field experiments, collection of live organisms for laboratory and outdoor mesocosm experiments, and for culturing of marine organisms.

The facilities for Marine Chemical Ecology at Tjärnö, funded by the European Commission in 2005 (CeMACE), includes state-of-the-art chemical analytical instruments, a biohydrodynamic facility including two flumes, and an Ecotron (outdoor facility for mesocosm experiments). These resources have had a decisive impact for the successful development of research within Marine Chemical Ecology attracting attention on both a national and international level.

The facilities for Marine Molecular Ecology and Genetics at Tjärnö and Kristineberg, partly funded by EC (CeMACE) and EU FP (ASSEMBLE), include state-of-the-art equipment for population genetic and phylogenetic studies, for gene cloning, bacterial culture, histology lab for ISH and immunohistochemistry and a cell culture lab with laminar flow hoods and incubators. These resources, together with the facilities for culture of marine organisms, including more than 35 species and the algal culture collection in Gothenburg (financed by the Faculty of Science), are of great importance for the development of research in marine molecular ecology, evolution and genomics. The Department of Marine ecology is together with the Lovén centre members of the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC) which is now a European Research Infrastructure financed by EUFP7.