If you’re doing research on Lake Erie or its flora and fauna, Stone Laboratory’s setting in the Western Basin provides an ideal location for work throughout the year. Go out on the lake, hop nearby islands, or break it down in the lab — our equipment and facilities are available for your use, to make a request, use this form.

Laboratory Space

Water Quality Lab

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To tackle nutrient loading and harmful algal blooms with constant water quality monitoring and testing equipment. Learn More.

Wet Laboratory

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Renovated in fall of 2011, the wet lab provides a large area (1920 ft ²) to conduct experiments. The wet lab includes bench space along with aquariums of all sizes up to 250-gallon flow-through lake-water systems. Overhead compressed air and lake water combined with an open floor plan provide flexibility for aquatic experiments. Herpetologists and ichthyologists commonly utilize space in our wet lab.

Mesocosm Facility

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The Mesocosm Facility, which opened in summer 2022, enables researchers to mimic conditions found in Lake Erie while offering trade-offs between replicated, small-scale lab experiments and ecological realism. The Mesocosm Facility has 15 2,200-L tanks that can be filled with water from nearby Lake Erie, and the water can be filtered down to 1 µm, or the filters can be bypassed, allowing for the natural plankton community.

Flex Lab

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The Flex Lab can be used for research or workshops. The lab is a 1,000 ft2 room with 14 moveable lab benches and fixed-bench space along the perimeter. The Flex Lab has a temperature- and light-controlled two-shelf incubator, microscopes, and a fume hood. The Flex Lab has a large 20×20 ft overhead door and connects to the Wet Lab by a 14 ft sliding door. Large equipment, such as buoys or sediment traps can be brought into either the Wet or Flex Lab with a forklift

Research Vessels

Stone Lab has several research vessels with different capabilities. The R/V Erie Monitor and R/V GS-3 are smaller, fast vessels but cannot handle large waves, cannot deploy large equipment, and are limited to about five passengers. The R/V Gibraltar III and M/V BioLab are larger vessels that can carry larger crews, heavy equipment, handle larger waves, and pull a fish trawl, but they are slower.

Cost Table

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Field and Lab Equipment

Stone Lab’s research spaces include a variety of equipment, including the list below. Please contact the research coordinator with specific questions about the research facilities.