Equipment

The site of the Institute for Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN-CSIC) covers an area of 4567 m2. Up to 2007 the area occupied by buildings was 1550 m2; this was then increased to 3200m2 with the construction of an annexe building. The Institute has one main building and installations for the maintenance of fishes and other experimental animals. The ground floor of the main building and annexe houses the Administration and Communications Services, Concierge, Management, Library, Meetings Room, Lecture Theatre, and Maintenance Workshops. The first and second floors house the laboratories and offices of the various research groups.

The installations for animal experimentation are located in two buildings; one of these is the annexe to the main building, and includes an area for experimentation with fishes, a common area for carrying out work relating to the care and maintenance of equipment, and an area of wet laboratories for experimentation with aquatic animals. There is another laboratory for the production of auxiliary species for cultures (microalgas, zooplankton). The laboratories are supplied with fresh water, salt water (salinity = 33) and thermostatically-controlled (19°C) water. The Institute also has a collection of more than 300 strains of microalgas belonging principally to marine species but some freshwater species are also maintained, together with species of hypersaline environments. The species are cultivated not only in liquid medium but also on solid medium.

Services of Analysis and of Scientific Infrastructure are also available to the ICMAN-CSIC, for pursuing the lines of research included in its Plan of Activities. The Services of Analysis at the Institute provide support to its research groups and to the rest of the scientific community. There are two nutrient autoanalyzers (Bran-Luebbe and Skalar), and two elemental analyzers (CHN and CHNS) available.

The research groups have specific equipment for carrying out their own lines of research. Among the many items of equipment the following are the more important: ICP-MS Thermo-Fisher ICAP-Q; Perkin-Elmer ICP-OES 2000DV; Hg Analyzers (DMA80, Milestone and LECO AMA 254); Agilent HPLC-MS; Waters HPLC-FL-UV; Waters HPLC-Diode Array; Milestone STAR D microwaves for the digestion of samples; and CEM-MarsX for the extraction of samples; Lyophilizers; Ultra microbalances; Ball mills (Pulversitte 6 Fristch); Systems for the production of ultrapure acids (Trace Clean, Milestone); systems for analysis by multi-syringe flow injection(CellMSFIA-LWCC); Becton-Dickinson flow cytometers; Methrohm anodic redissolution voltage-amperometry instruments; Thermo Px2 thermocycler; Genosmart VWR gel visualizer; Zeiss Axioscop conventional microscopes and microscopes with fluorescence systems; TECAN microplate readers; Shimadzu TOC-CVSP dissolved organic matter analyzer; real-time PCR equipment (Eppendorf and Bio-Rad), two Eppendorf PCR units; Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer; Faster laminar flow cabinet; and Memmert incubator for cell cultures.