North Auburn Upper Fisheries Research Station : Field facilities of the Department are located on a tract of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station approximately 8 kilometers north of the campus.Approximately 650 hectares of the tract have been set aside primarily for research and teaching in aquaculture, aquatic ecology, and fisheries management. Constructed on the fisheries research unit are 235 earthen ponds comprising approximately 90 hectares of water. The ponds range in size from 0.02 hectare to 8.90 hectares. Water is collected from rainfall on watersheds surrounding the ponds. Located near the ponds are service buildings, equipment storage buildings, shops, feed and fertilizer storage, and a large fish holding/handling building. A fish processing/technology laboratory, the Ireland Center for the study of fishery sciences, a laboratory for research on biochemical genetics, a fish retail sales building for studies on fish marketing, a fish nutrition laboratory and hatchery laboratory also are located at the research station. Most of the ponds are available for various research projects. Several of the ponds are managed as a commercial fish farm. |
Facilities dedicated to the genetic improvement of fishes are located on the North Auburn UpperFisheries Research Station. Facilities include 70 earthen ponds with 3.4 ha of water which contain the only government approved outdoor confinement installation for the study of transgenic fish in the United States. A 600 m2 hatchery contains aquaria,fiberglass tanks and incubators for artificially reproducing a variety of fish species. A 600 m2 square foot building for the study of biochemical genetics contains equipment for the classification of fish strains by protein electrophoresis and DNA analysis, and the cloning of recombinant genes for introduction into fish eggs. More...
Facilities also include the 210 m2 Ireland Building laboratory with five outdoor drive-through boat storage bays and the 128 m2 Ireland Center Annex office facility. Field equipment available at the lab includes three Smith-Root shockboats (two of which have been fitted with a larval fish push net; a large boat is suitable for large reservoir work, a small boat is suitable for pond work), a Boston Whaler (one of which has been fitted with a larval fish push net), two large net boats (Kahn and Clark boats), an air boat rigged for electrofishing, several small flat-bottom boats, and all varieties of passive sampling gears (e.g., seines, trap nets, gill nets). The lab equipment includes four dissecting microscopes, two compound microscopes, and an image analysis system that provides state-of-the-art technology for processing larval fish samples, diets, zooplankton samples, and for quantifying daily rings in fish otoliths. A recently-purchased semi-microbomb calorimeter is now available for energetics work. In addition, a nephelometer and a spectrophotometer for analysis of turbidity and chlorophyll-a in pond and reservoir water samples are available. The Annex office facility houses graduate students and technical staff, and includes numerous IBM-compatible computers for data entry and analysis. Ireland Building home page.
South Auburn Field Station: The South Auburn Field Station includes 36, 0.1 ha earthen ponds and a 465 m2, well-equipped teaching laboratory. The teaching laboratory has indoor and outdoor facilities for housing live fishes.
Fish Biodiversity Laboratory:
This multi-purpose facility located on South College and Woodfield Drive houses offices, research labs, the ichthyology teaching collection, teachings labs and office/lab space for Steve Rider of ADCNR. The teaching facilities take up approximately one quarter of the building and include teaching collection space in a separate, vented room. The Auburn University teaching collection has approximately 1000 lots of specimens from approximately 160 families representative of world fish families, as well as fishes from Alabama and the southeastern United States. There are two teaching labs; one for computer work and one for specimen processing and examination. In addition, the building has storage for field equipment used for ichthyology lab and overnight trips. Office space includes four offices for faculty, staff and students, plus a conference room and GIS workstation. In addition, one office/lab is used by ADCNR personnel. The research labs include wet lab space and a variety of tank sizes, from a large stream tank to arrays of 10, 20, and 40 gallon tanks. An acoustics lab was constructed by Dr. Johnston and her students and is used for work with sound production and hearing in fishes. The facility also includes lab space for processing and temporary storage of fish specimens collected for biodiversity surveys and associated projects. More...
Auburn University Shellfish Lab : The Auburn University Shellfish Lab is located on Dauphin Island on land leased from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. The Auburn University Shellfish Lab was established with industry input to conduct practical research that will foster high quality shellfish production and protect shellfish resources in the Gulf of Mexico. The facility includes 321 m2 of office and laboratory space and 386 m2 of hatchery space under the building. Incorporated into the office and laboratory space are a microbiology laboratory, water quality laboratory, self-contained algae laboratory, large conference room, student offices, and visiting scientist offices. The hatchery features experimental and production tanks ranging in size from 115 l to 945 l with larger tanks slated to be included at a later date. Seawater is supplied to the hatchery by two pipelines that extend into the Gulf of Mexico. |