Overview

Husö biological station (HBS) belongs to the Environmental and Marine Biology, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Åbo Akademi University. HBS established in 1959 is situated at Bergö in the central part of the Åland Islands. HBS holds long-term data bases on marine environmental change and has collaboration with the autonomous Government of the Åland Islands. HBS is base for diverse aquatic studies, but also botanical and entomological studies are conducted. HBS offers space for scientists, students and field courses and provides infrastructure for experimental aquatic ecology, laboratory analyses, marine biological sampling of coastal brackish waters as well as lakes in relative unaltered ecosystems of the Baltic Sea.The archipelago is vastly complex with high habitat diversity. HBS facilitates long-term monitoring, coastal field studies, and experimental research. The station has a long tradition of application of scientific results in management, legislation, and societal purposes in co-operation with third sector bodies. The research at HBS centres on climate change and eutrophication effects on structure and function of key marine habitats, and communities and populations of coastal ecosystems. HBS provides TA services for ASSEMBLE Plus, for which the University of Helsinki (UH) is the Finnish partner.

Ecosystems

• Baltic Sea ecosystems (brackish water ecosystems characterised by vast archipelagos with high habitat complexity)

 

Ecosystem access

• Coastal research vessels (On-site service)
  • Åland Sea; North Baltic Sea
  • Motor boats (15-90 hp) for sampling in coastal waters
  • Near-shore diving facility
• Scuba diving facilities (On-site service)
  • for access to Åland Sea and North Baltic Sea
• Sampling equipment (On-site service)
  • Water samplers, plankton nets, sediment corers, grabs, dredges, trawls, seines, gill nets and handheld probes)
  • Two cars for towing boat trailers

 

Biological resources 

• Species collected upon request (On-site service)
  • North Baltic sea

 

Experimental facilities 

• Aquaria and tanks (On-site service)
  • Controlled indoor and outdoor experimental studies with filtered flow-through seawater (c. 5.5 PSU)
• Wet labs (On-site service)
  • Controlled indoor and outdoor experimental studies with filtered flow-through seawater (c. 5.5 PSU)
• Climate-controlled rooms (On-site service)
  • aquaria, controlled light, water movement
     

Possibility for field experiments in diverse habitats.
Permission to conduct fishing with several methods and is certified to conduct experiment with fish
 

Technology platforms

• Imaging (On-site service)
  • Platforms for the sorting and analysis of samples

 

E-services

• Data-sets (On-site and remote service)
  • Seawater parameters (temperature, salinity, later also chlorophyll-a, oxygen, pH) measured since the1970s, at three monitoring stations in the inner and mid archipelago

 

Expert advice

• Biological sample identification (On-site service)
  • North Baltic Sea benthic fauna and macrophytes

 

Library services

• Library services (On-site service)
  • Access to e-library
• In-house lodging (On-site service)
• In-house catering (On-site service)
  • Accommodation and in-house catering for up to 50 people

 

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HBS is open for visiting scientists all year round, with most activity occurring during the open-water season.