Research Facilities

tekst benthos 

tekst carbonate system analyses

NIOZ provides a number of thermo-controlled laboratories for experimental studies and cultivation. Some are designed for a specific purpose and belong to a scientific department, others are for general use and located in the Aquarium-facility. These are managed by the 'climate room committee'.

The department of Marine Geology (GEO) maintains a repository of sediment cores. In cooperation with the Data Management Group an online database has been developed, archiving the cores, their status and the analyses, which have been performed. The XRF CoreScanner delivers photographs of the cores and the archive will be updated with these detailed images in the near future. Explore this CoreBase.

SF ICP-MS is a combination of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) with a mass spectrometer (MS). The SF abbreviates 'Sector Field', which warrants a high resolution. IC-PMS is a popular technique because of its clear advantages:

• No matrix effects after dilution of >5000x
• Low limit of detection (ppt-ppb range)
• Multi element capabilities
• Trace, minor and major elements in 1 run
• High sample throughput (200 samples/day)
• Ability to obtain isotopic information

Typical applications:

• analysis elemental composition corals
• analysis elemental composition sediment

For more information, please contact:

The Molecular Biology Laboratory facilitates DNA and RNA targeted approaches to study any marine organism or community: from virus to seal and from tropical reef to polar ice or dark deep ocean communities. The lab is open to all NIOZ scientists but others are also welcome to cooperate or to join proposals.

We develop diagnostic tools for specific research questions and offer assistance and advice on how to:

• sample for molecular biology analyses;
• process samples for specific research questions;
• analyse sequences, (meta) genomes and transcriptomes;
• analyse the results statistically

For more information, please check our webpage or contact Judith.van.Bleijswijk(at)nioz.nl

In het nutrientenlaboratorium worden nat chemische analyses uitgevoerd om concentraties voedingstoffen te bepalen in zeewater en in poriewater afkomstig uit de zeebodem. Nitraat, nitriet, ammonium, opgelost reactief fosfaat, silicaat, opgelost anorganisch koolstof, totaal opgelost fosfaat en totaal opgelost stikstof behoren tot de standaard bepalingen. Het laboratorium en medewerkers maakt deelt uit van de Marine Research Facilities (MRF, contactpersoon: Erica Koning). Daarom heeft het verrichten van analyses voor ALW-goedgekeurde vaartochten, hetzij direct aan boord, hetzij in het laboratorium hoogste prioriteit.

Voor meer informatie:

Phytoplankton

Zooplankton

Radio-isotopes are used to for dating sediments and for estimating biogeochemical rates.

Dating sediments

Natural radio-isotopes, such as ²³⁴Th en ²¹⁰Pb as well as man-made isotopes such as ¹³⁷Cs are often used for dating sediments. Some isotopes can be measured directly using a HR ICP-MS, whereas other isotopes can be detected by alpha and beta spectrometric techniques. Both ICP-MS and spectrometry are available at the GEO Sediment Lab.

For more information, please contact:

Assaying Biochemical Activities

Specific metabolic and chemical process rates, be it of cultures or natural communities, can be assayed using radio-active nutrients, energy sources or oxidants. These substrates may be labeled with ³H, ¹⁴C, ³²P, ³³P, or ³⁵S radio-isotopes. Some typical examples of activity measurements include bacterial amino acid uptake rate as a measure for bacterial production, ¹⁴C incorporation rates as a measure for primary production, ³²P or ³³P uptake rates, and ³⁵S-sulfate reduction rates.

Additional information:

Stable isotopes from carbonaceous fractions are used to reconstruct salinity and temperature of sea water at the time the (biogenic) carbonate was formed.

Contact:

For the marine scienntific community in the Netherlands, MRF manages a wide array of seagoing equipment, such as instrumentation and gear. More information can be found at 'Marine Research Facilities'.

Benthic equipment

Bottom landers

Corescanners

NIOZ provides a large 5x5x5 m³ test basin for seagoing equipment such as bottom landers and a pressure tank for testing smaller modules and units at hydraulic pressures of up to ca 600 bar the equivalence of 6000 m water depth. These facilities are available to external parties as well.

More information commercial use can be found here.

tekst trace metal analyses

tekst core scanner