LEA-IDRO | Aquatic Ecology Laboratory – Hydrochemistry Section

The Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology (LEA) is located in Sassari, in Via Piandanna 4. The laboratory houses and maintains a collection of cell cultures of microalgal and cyanobacterial species of particular scientific interest and one of fixed samples, partly catalogued and whose supporting documentation is partially 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 Laboratory of Plant Genetics, which also includes researchers from other Departments and where DADU tools are present.
The research concerns the study of the ecology of the main planktonic and microbenthic biotic components, and their relationships with abiotic variables on different time scales (including the long time scale, LTER) and space in lake, transition and coastal marine environments. The research, carried out to expand basic knowledge, also has application management and territorial planning purposes.
Main topics: phytoplankton and microphytobenthos ecology; 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 river basin scale 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 the research and the related necessary instrumentation, has led to the identification of two sections:
• LEA-MOE Optical and Electronic Microscopy Section, head Prof. Antonella Lugliè
• LEA-IDRO Hydrochemistry Section, head Prof. Bachisio Mario Padedda

The hydrochemistry lab (LEA-IDRO) is equipped with multiparameter probes featuring dataloggers, 10-100m cables, and sensors for depth, pressure, temperature, pH, conductivity, oxygen, chlorophyll, and turbidity, plus PAR sensors, echo sounders, plankton nets, sediment grabbers and corers and Niskin bottles. The full suite includes spectrophotometers, fluorimeters, an ultrapure water system, and other essential lab equipment (balances, autoclave, centrifuge, sonicator, incubators, refrigerators, fume hoods).

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

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