Laboratory of Autotrophic Organisms

Scientific Head: Anna Vladimirovna Skriptsova, a senior researcher, Cand. Sci. Biol., has managed the laboratory since 2016.

Main fields of research:

• Biodiversity of marine macrophytes.
• Conservation and rational use of marine autotrophic organisms.
• Mechanisms of adaptation of marine autotrophic organisms and their communities.
• Ecological and physiological bases of primary production of marine autotrophs.
• Marine algae biotechnologies and aquaculture.

The goals of the laboratory’s activity are as follows:

• Study of functions and dynamics of marine phytocenoses and their interaction with the environment.
• Study of mechanisms responsible for the stability and adaptation of marine autotrophic organisms to changing environmental conditions.
• Development of a theoretical basis for assessing the status of communities of marine autotrophic organisms (sea grasses, algae, and hermatypic corals) and trends in their changes.
• Development of technological bases for cultivating commercially valuable macroalgae.

Approaches and methods used

To analyze the structure and dynamics of communities, standard hydrobiological methods are used (the methods of test plots and hydrobiological transects). Analysis of physiological condition of autotrophic organisms is based on the methods of variable chlorophyll a fluorescence (saturation pulse method) and oximetry. Standard spectrophotometric techniques are applied to assess antioxidant potential and content of secondary metabolites (phenolic compounds, polysaccharides, and mycosporine-like amino acids).

Objects under study: sea grasses, marine macroalgae, marine phytocenoses, commercial and potentially commercial algae, and hermatypic corals. Studies are carried out in the seas of temperate and tropical latitudes.

Information provided by the researcher L.I. Sabitova.