Culturing Lab

Equipment

• Temperature rooms: We have two connected temperature/cool rooms designed for foraminifera culturing experiments which can operate at temperatures down to 4°C. The rooms are connected for easy workflow; however, they can operate at different temperatures. Both rooms have sinks, drains and spaces for microscopy. One room also have a fume hood and chemical cabinet, ideal for preparing water for culturing treatments on-site. We also have 3 incubators in one room (see below).
• Incubators: We currently have 3 Friocell Evo 222 incubators which allow us to run culturing experiments down to freezing temperatures while still having constant light in the incubators. We can programme the incubators to have light and/or temperature cycles which mimics natural ocean conditions such as stable temperature with a day/night 24-hour light cycle of varying light intensity throughout the “day”. The incubators also have an access port for monitoring conditions inside the incubators and a de-icing option in the programs.
• Microscopy:  We have two inverted transmitted light microscopes (Zeiss Axio Vert.A1) with objectives from 5x to 40x magnification and high-definition colour cameras. One microscope also has a fluorescent light lamp and various filters, which can be used with e.g., cell tracer stains and calcein-staining for tracing laboratory grown calcite. This microscope also has a monochromatic camera which interacts better with fluorescence. The stage of both microscopes is flat for easy use with culturing flasks, petri dishes, and plates. This allows us to perform detailed observations, photograph, film and make time lapse videos of the foraminifera specimens in culture. In addition, we have 3 stereo microscopes (Zeiss Stereo Microscope Stemi 305 KMAT) with additional lights for micropaleontological work and up to 4x magnification. These are lightweight microscopes ideal for transporting on cruises and using while handling the foraminifera during culturing experiments.
• Water chemistry: We have a digital meter for measuring water pH, salinity and dissolved oxygen to use while preparing and monitoring culturing water treatments.

Through the Department of Geoscience and collaborators we also have access to a wide range of other equipment and infrastructure.