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Seeon Limnological Station (SLS)

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Limnologische Station Seeon
Schulstrasse 3
83370 Seeon

Tel. +49 8624 1400
Fax +49 8624 2705

seeon@bio.lmu.de

 

 

 

Seeon Limnological Station

The Seeon Limnological Station (SLS) belongs to the Aquatic Ecology group of Prof. Herwig Stibor. SLS is located about 80km southeast of Munich within a large lake area. About 60 lakes originating from the last Ice Age are within short driving distance. These lakes differ in size, depth, nutritional status and biodiversity.

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Fig. 1: Lake Klostersee (left ©Bleese) lake Brunnensee (right ©Stockenreiter)

The station is directly connected to a nature reserve called “Seeoner Seenplatte” with access to 14 lakes, of which one is rented by LMU for research activities.
Limnological research has been conducted in Seeon for more than 75 years, and since 1970 the Seeon Limnological Station is located in the former school building of the town. Since 1983 the “ Gesellschaft der Freunde und Förderer der Limnologischen Station Seeon der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München e.V.” (GFL) supports the Seeon Limnological station.

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Fig. 2: Labs and equipment at the station (©Bleese)

Basic physical, chemical and biological parameters of several of these lakes have been monitored for 30 years. SLS is fully equipped for analysing water chemistry, biochemistry, and phyto- and zooplankton community composition and activities. The station´s equipment facilitates immediate analyses of water and plankton samples and consists of: multispectral PAM instrument (PSI Photons), 8-LED-based Algal Lab Analyzer (bbe Moldaenke), FlowCAM (Fluid Imaging Technologies), CHN elemental analyser (Microcube, Elementar), spectrophotometers (Shimadzu), spectrofluorometers (Turner), spectroradiometer (PSI Photons), ion chromatography system (DIONEX), and several high-quality research microscopes .

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Fig. 4: Freshwater Zoo- and Phytoplankton organisms (©Stockenreiter, Berger, Hantzsche)

Additionally, a walk-in environmental chamber, a large plankton growth chamber, and 300-L indoor plankton cultivation facilities are in use at the research station. A four-wheel pickup with a boat trailer supports the transport of equipment and boats to the lakes. Three boats are permanently located in lakes near SLS and three additional boats are available at SLS. Several probes (EXO, WTW probes for limnological standard parameters and a Turner SCUFA probe for in situ chlorophyll analyses) allow fast in-situ characterization of physical, chemical and biological water quality parameters.

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Fig. 5: Mesocosms (©Stibor)

Since 1997, LMU Mesocosms have been set up for research and teaching every year. The current infrastructure consists of 60 individual mesocosms, which are highly mobile and flexible to install. This gives the unique opportunity to suspend replicated mesocosms simultaneously in several lakes, ranging from oligotrophic to eutrophic conditions. The mesocosms are variable in size with diameters of 0.9 to 2 m with variable depths up to 20 m. They can be filled in situ with lake water by being submerged and lifting of their floating rings, or by using powerful water pumps (10000L per h). Experimental manipulations include, but are not limited to, light intensity and quality, nutrient supply rates, as well as food-web structure and composition. Experiments can run in situ with or without thermal stratification of the water column. Outdoor facilities include platforms to install 36 fixed and 60 individually floating mesocosms.

School meets limnology

School classes are invited to visit the research station Seeon. After an introduction into the research field of limnology, the students get a tour of the station und receive an opportunity to gain insights into on-going research projects.

Registration and information: seeon@bio.lmu.de