Palaeoecological Lab AVIT

Arenaria norvegica seed Foto: Phenom-World

The Advanced Scientific Equipment (AVIT) programme from the Norwegian Research Council (NFR) awarded the Palaeoecology Laboratory* a 10.3 million kroner grant to purchase equipment to bring palaeoecological research in Norway into the 21^st century.

The planned purchases are:

1. Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope – enhancing the taxonomic precision of palaeo data
2. AutoStage developed at Massey University, New Zealand that automatically locates, classifies, and counts pollen – improving the temporal and quantitative precision of palaeo data and allowing much more pollen-stratigraphical data to be produced
3. Centrifuge to extract and isolate fossil pollen for AMS radiocarbon dating - improving chronological precision
4. Micromanipulator & pipette puller that can extract tiny amounts of fossil biological material for DNA analysis, stable-isotope analyses, and UV-B analysis – allowing new research directions to be followed
5. Coulter counter for rapidly estimating microfossil concentrations – improving the quantitative precision of palaeo data
6. eInfrastructure for storing images of fossils needed for AutoStage and ESEM – improving taxonomic and quantitative precision of palaeo data

The bulk of the new equipment will be purchased in 2011. We have an open-lab policy and if you wish to visit EECRG and work with one of our members in the lab, please get in touch with the person you wish to collaborate with. There is a bench fee system operating.

* The Palaeoecology Laboratory is part of the Biodiversity Laboratories in the Department of Biology at the University of Bergen and includes researchers from the Natural History Collections at Bergen Museum and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research

An automatic pollen recognition and counting machine Foto: Massey University