U3E's cross-cutting services

U3E's facilities are complemented by cross-cutting services: a water quality monitoring laboratory, a sclerochronology platform and information systems.

Water quality monitoring laboratory

The water quality lab performs physical-chemical water analyses. It is equipped with a spectrophotometer, turbidimeters and a number of laboratory and field probes for routine monitoring of water pH, conductivity, O₂, NH₄, NO₃ and PO₄. The spectrophotometer measures concentrations of major ions and can be used to fulfil ad hoc requests for tests.

Sclerochronology platform

The work of this department involves

• Interpreting fish age and growth from scales collected during sampling campaigns (trapping, fishers' catches etc.)
• Advising fishery managers on fish age interpretation and species identification
• Managing and making available its collections of more than 100,000 individual samples, collected over a period of 30 years. These can be used for retrospective analysis of growth, genetics and isotopes.

The department is equipped with stereo microscopes and scanners.

Information systems

We use our various databases to optimise the management of data on climate, hydrology, physical chemistry, fish, etc., obtained at our different sites and from our ichthyological collections, documents, materials and activities. The databases are interconnected via reference tables. They are designed to be interoperable with other national databases.