The Aquatic Ecology Wet Lab

Within the Research Center, and just down the hall from the AEL office complex, is our wet laboratory. This well-equipped lab contains four walk-in environmental growth chambers, three large aquarium rooms, a dechlorinated water supply, five experimental pools (designated for flow-through or recirculating), four living streams, and a riffle-pool (N=2) recirculating stream tank. To ensure suitable incoming water (at about 200 liters per minute), the AEL has a chlorine analyzer that continually monitors the chlorine residual. The wet lab has a low-pressure air supply, two new large-capacity sump pumps for pumping waste water from our facility, floor drains, and ground-fault electrical circuits for safety. Because the wet lab is adjacent to our loading dock, where field gear is sorted and loaded, it contains lockers and cabinets for storage of field equipment and supplies.

Some of the pools and living streams in the AEL wet lab.

Here we have built two riffle-pool combinations that allow for replicate experiments. Two paddlewheels, attached to two variable speed electric motors, provide the flow necessary to mimic stream flow.

Matt Gearhiser checking a recirculating flow
system set up in one of the AEL's
environmental chambers.