LEA-MOE | Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology – Optical and electron microscopy

The Aquatic Ecology Laboratory (LEA) is in Sassari, Via Piandanna 4. The laboratory houses and maintains a collection of cell cultures of microalgae and cyanobacteria of scientific interest and a collection of fixed samples, partly catalogued and whose supporting documentation is partly digitalized, useful for retrospective analyses of the changes that have occurred in the sampling sites and, more generally, in the Mediterranean area. Part of the research group's activities are carried out in the Plant Genetics Laboratory, shared with researchers from other Departments, and where instruments of DADU Ecology group are positioned. The research areas of the activities carried out in the laboratory concern the study of the ecology of the main planktonic and microbenthic biotic components, and of their relationships with abiotic variables in lake, transitional and coastal marine environments, on different time scales (including Long Term Ecological Research) and space. The research is carried out, in addition to the expansion of basic knowledge, for applied purposes of resource management and territorial planning projects.
Main topics: ecology of phytoplankton and microphytobenthos; eutrophication; long-term ecological research; HAS and HABs; biological traits and their analysis; development and application of biological indices for the definition of environmental quality; biodiversity; use of coupled ecological models from the scale of the river basin to the water body to evaluate processes and functions; environmental monitoring; preparation and development of automatic monitoring systems in water.
The wide variety of techniques and methods applied to carry out research and the related necessary instrumentation, led to the identification of two sections:
• Optical and electronic microscopy section (LEA-MOE), headed by Prof. Antonella Lugliè 
• Hydrochemistry section (LEA-IDRO), headed by Prof. Bachisio Mario Padedda

The microscopy lab features advanced optical microscopes (inverted, phase contrast, epifluorescence, DIC) with 10x to 100x objectives (including oil immersion), equipped with cameras. An environmental scanning electron microscope (VP-SEM) with a Peltier stage and Ion Sputtering Coaters (graphite and gold), are also available. Fume hoods.

Polo Bionaturalistico di Piandanna,
Via Piandanna 4, Sassari (SS) – 07100

Antonella Lugliè – Associate Professor and Head of the Laboratory
Silvia Pulina – RTDb
Paola Casiddu – Research Fellow
Cristina Pittalis – Research Fellow
Marco Cherchi – PhD Candidate
Bachisio Mario Padedda – Associate Professor
Cecilia Teodora Satta – AGRIS external collaborator