Facilities

Research laboratories are well-equipped in areas of individual and group expertise. Special facilities include an extensive CCAC approved animal holding facility for small terrestrial and aquatic animals; three herbaria; greenhouses, growth chambers and controlled environment chambers; DNA sequencing facilities, ultracentrifuges; isotope equipment; culturing facilities; various types of light microscopes (interference, polarizing, fluorescence and 3-D imaging and image analysis; EM preparatory facility and transmission electron microscope (STEM).

Our department also has access, by arrangement, to equipment and facilities within and beyond the university. These allow for capability for NMR, mass spectrometry, IR microscopy, Environmental SEM, advanced chemical analysis. Facilities exist for plant chemistry and various analytical approaches at the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals. The Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon is also available for research use. High performance computing for quantitative simulation and analysis is available through local facilities and the WestGrid network.

Field and laboratory research is carried out on a variety of prairie, marsh and woodland habitats and on a wide array of inland lakes and rivers, as well as Arctic tundra and marine habitats. The University Field St (Delta Marsh) provides year-round research facilities and accommodation for biological research in the 17,000 hectare Delta Marsh on the southern shore of Lake Manitoba. Field station facilities are also available to faculty and their students at Star Lake (Whiteshell, Manitoba), the Experimental Lakes Area (N.W. Ontario) and the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. The variety of research venues available to our faculty and students helps to foster collaborations among researchers both within and external to the University of Manitoba further.