Micropaleontology Lab

The micropaleontology lab is equipped to conduct morphological analyses including extraction, microscopic preparation and taxonomic investigations of microfossils from terrestrial plants e.g. pollen grains and aquatic organisms e.g. diatom valves and chironomids from lake sediment archives or permafrost deposits. Microfossil analyses are used to investigate spatial and temporal changes and environmental reconstructions in Arctic terrestrial ecosystems.
The extraction of microfossil remains like diatom valves or chironomid head capsules requires a chemical preparation of sediment samples to retrieve mostly clean suspensions of the organismic remains. Permanent slides for repeated microscopic investigations are prepared and taxonomic determination is done by using specific identification keys.
The extraction of pollen grains for microscopic analyses requires the incubation of sediment samples with e.g. concentrated hydrofluoric acid in order to effectively remove non-pollen components of the sediment samples. The pollen lab is equipped with special personal protection, a specialized fume-hood combined with a neutralization device to ensure safe handling with concentrated acid during the pollen extraction procedure.