Research infrastructure
Complex Hydrobiological Laboratory
Summary
The Complex Hydrobiological Laboratory (KHL) have been designed to enable comprehensive ecological assessments of surface waters. The laboratory’s activities include field sampling, taxonomic analyses, and advanced laboratory measurements and evaluations.
The KHL specializes in the standardized sampling and analysis of biological groups that play a key role in national and international legislation, with a primary focus on phytoplankton, phytobenthos, macrophyte, and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. The laboratory is capable of collecting and analyzing biological data from all types of surface waters in Hungary.
KHL is equipped with both traditional field sampling tools (such as Ruttner plankton samplers, Ekman-Birge sediment samplers, and soil corers) and state-of-the-art field and laboratory instruments (drones, algal torches, automated loggers, measuring probes, stereo-, inverted- and light microscopes, and climate chambers). This equipment allows for efficient and reliable data collection and measurement under a wide range of hydrological and ecological conditions.
Linking research and water management, focusing on the issues like:
- Basic research on ecological processes, biodiversity patterns, and functional traits of aquatic organisms.
- Applied research supporting water policy, providing scientific evidence to implement EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and related national water-management and restoration strategies.
- Maintaining the national biological dataset of surface waters in Hungary, and providing taxonomic and hydrobiological expertise to support external research, monitoring, and water-management services.
By integrating robust field sampling capacity with taxonomic, ecological, and bioassessment expertise, the laboratory contributes to both advancing aquatic science and informing evidence-based water policy and restoration decisions.
Related projects:
- Development of WFD monitoring, research, methods, and ata collection programme. KEHOP-1.1.0-15-2016-0002, Borics Gábor, Boda Pál és Lukács Balázs András
- Development of the functional ecology lab, Lukács Balázs András, (SA-60/2021.)
- Coordinating the field sampling of the 5th Joint Danube Survey within Hungary
