The culturing facility at the SERG lab houses both a batch culture system and a 1600-L recirculating culture system. Both systems have been primarily used for maintenance and culturing of benthic foraminifera. The facility offers a physicochemically stable culturing environment where various physicochemical variables can be controlled and/or manipulated.
The 1600-L re-circulating system was recently adapted to incorporate a CO2 manipulation system in order to determine the important physiological consequences of lower pCO2 levels on benthic intertidal foraminifera. Seawater carbonate chemistry is manipulated by bubbling carbon dioxide gas, which enables us to maintain large quantities of CO2 acidified seawater at a consistent pH.