PEARL, the aquatic experimentation facility at Rennes - Le Rheu

Indoor facilities

With a total surface area of 800 m², these two halls are divided into around fifteen technical rooms (laboratory, offices, workshops, boiler room, etc.) or experimental rooms. Some are dedicated to the production or maintenance of model organisms: fish (medaka, lamprey, stickleback, eel, young salmonid stages, etc.), invertebrates (crayfish, daphnia, chironomids, etc.), algae, plants, etc. The other rooms, which are more versatile, are fitted out according to requirements and specific needs: experiments involving xenobiotics, invasive exotic species, etc.

The greenhouses

The 250 m² of greenhouses are used for animal and plant experimentation and production.

The mesocosms

This consists of around a hundred 0.5 m3 to 30 m3 basins where aquatic ecosystems of varying degrees of complexity are reconstituted to study their functioning and the impact of forcing factors (anthropogenic or otherwise) in lentic environments. Part of this plateau has been fitted out for ecotoxicology research protocols.
The whole area is located outdoors and is subject to local climatic variations (rainfall, temperature, etc.). All of these basins can be fully fitted out according to a design defined with the clients.

The ponds at Le Rheu  

Around thirty ponds, ranging in size from 100 m² to 1000 m², are used to study the functioning (ecology) or development (aquaculture, agro-ecology, etc.) of pond ecosystems and to produce or maintain model organisms (carassins, pikes, eels, shad, etc.)