Center for Culture of Marine Phytoplankton

Provasoli-Guillard中心拥有世界上最大的海洋浮游植物培养收藏。这些培养物分发给全世界的科学家、水产养殖孵化场、工业公司（特别是生物技术公司）和政府机构。海洋浮游植物是海洋中的“植物”，它们构成了海洋系统食物链的基础。由于海洋覆盖了地球表面的70%以上，浮游植物在全球生态中起着主导作用。科学家们在实验中使用浮游植物培养物来研究二氧化碳增加（温室效应）和臭氧空洞造成的紫外线损害所引起的全球变化的潜在影响，以及寻找浮游植物生物的多样性，以寻找可用于治疗人类或其他疾病的天然产物。最近海洋水产养殖的迅速扩张主要是由于使用浮游植物培养物作为贝类和鱼类幼虫和幼鱼的食物。该项目将为Provasoli- Guillard中心未来五年浮游植物培养收集的维护费用提供部分支持。活的浮游植物必须在培养液中持续保存，因为冷冻保存它们的方法还不完善。在授予期间，中心将开始对其计算机数据库进行重大修订，并将提供联机访问数据库的机会。它还将安装新的文化室，以保持更广泛的文化。最后，更换高压灭菌器用于培养基和玻璃器皿的灭菌，以确保纯净的培养条件。

The Provasoli-Guillard Center contains the world's largest culture collection of marine phytoplankton. The cultures are distributed to scientists, aquaculture hatcheries, industrial firms (especially biotechnology companies), and governmental agencies throughout the world. Marine phytoplankters are the "plants" of the ocean and they form the base of the food chain in ocean systems. Because oceans cover over 70% of the Earth's surface, phytoplankton play a dominant role in global ecology. Scientists use cultures of phytoplankton in experiments to study the potential effects of global changes caused by carbon dioxide increases (the greenhouse effect) and of ultraviolet light damage from ozone holes, as well as searching the diversity of phytoplankton organisms for natural products that may be used to cure human or other diseases. The recent rapid expansion of marine aquaculture is largely due to the use of phytoplankton cultures as foods for larval and juvenile shellfish and finfish. This project will provide partial support for the Provasoli- Guillard Center's maintenance costs of the phytoplankton culture collection for the next five years. Living phytoplankton must be maintained continuously in culture, since no methods have been perfected for their cryopreservation. During the award period, the Center will begin a major revision of its computer database, and will provide on-line access to the database. It will also install new culture chambers to enable a wider range of cultures to be maintained. Finally, a replacement autoclave will be purchased for sterilization of media and glassware in order to insure pure culture conditions.