Overviews of facilities

Laboratories
There are 18 laboratories on the first underground floor. These laboratories have been planned for various environmental researches. They have the serial numbers and their own names. They can be shared for research projects. The overview of the laboratories is shown here.

Operation and maintenance of facilities and instruments
"Center for Coordination, Promotion and Communication" (CCPC) maintains the facilities and the shared instruments. Each labolatory is maintained by the staff member who uses it regularly. The staff cooporate in both experiments and maintenance of the laboratories as responsible persons for utilization of the laboratories.

Instruments
- Research instruments
  The instruments can be divided into the shared instruments purchased with budget requests and funds for CCPC, and the instruments for research projects. In the case that the instruments used for completed research projects are greatly needed for other researches, they will be used as the shared instruments.
- Shared supplies
  Consumable supplies for researches (aluminium foil, plastic wrap, tissues, cleaning tools, etc.) are kept in Room 13 (Fieldwork Preparation Room 2). They are always available. If you want them, you need to fill necessary information (your name, the name of your research project, and the numbers of the supplies which you want) in the notebook before you take them to your laboratories.
How to use facilities of RIHN
Please refer to "How to use facilities" for guidance on utilization of facilities of RIHN and that of hazardous materials.

Floor plan of main building BF

The overview of each laboratory is given here.

Overview of laboratories

No.	Name	Main Purpose
1	Incubator	This room is divided into three small rooms in which different temperatures (5^°C, 15^°C, and 25^°C) are maintained each other. Biological specimens are cultivated at different temperatures in these small rooms.
2	Multi-purpose Laboratory 1	In this room, various biochemical experiments are carried out. A technique for extraction of DNA of microbes from water samples is also developing in this room.
3	Microscope Laboratory	There are various types of microscope. These microscopes are used for observation of environmental samples. In addition, there is a system for counting growth rings of trees, and a micro-dissector for micron-sized sampling.
4	DNA Laboratory	There is a small-scale clean room. Biochemical experiments including extaction of DNA from archaeological materials are carried out.
5	Multi-purpose Laboratory 2	Biological specimens are processed, observed, and analyzed in this room with instruments for biological investigation such as a DNA sequencer.
6	Multi-purpose Laboratory 3	Mainly, measurements of particles in snow ice are carried out using a particle counter equipped inside a small-scale clean booth.
7	Mass Spectrometer	Analyses of isotopic ratios in environmental samples are carried out with a thermal ionization mass spectrometer (TIMS) and a gamma-ray spectrometer.
8	Stable Isotope Laboratory	There are a stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) and an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) in this room. Analyses of stable isotopic ratios (H, O, C, N) are carried out with the IRMS, and measurements of multi-elements are carried out with the ICP-MS.
9	Chemicals	Chemicals are in safekeeping with this room. Sample preparation are also carried out in this room.
10	Chemical Laboratory 1	Various chemcal analyses are carried out using an ion chromatograph, a fluorospectrometer, a gas chromatograph, etc.
11	Chemical Laboratory 2	Water samples are mainly prepared for chemical analyses and/or stable isotope analyses in this room.
12	Fieldwork Preparation Room 1	In this room, equipments and supplies for fieldwork are kept and regulated before fieldwork.
13	Fieldwork Preparation Room 2	Equipments for analyses of gaseous materials in the field are regulated. Shared supplies are kept in this room.
14	Clean Room	There are acid-resistance draft chambers (class 100) within a class-1000 clean room. Chemical treatments of emviromental samples are carried out within this room.
15	Waste Storage	In addition to experimental wastes, samples of water and soils are kept in this room. The experimental wastes are treated by a disposal contractor on the outside.
16	Fieldwork Equipment Laboratory	This room is used for various experiments using preparation instruments (e.g. a SPE) for water samples and investigative instruments for biological samples in the aquatic environment.
17	Sample Preparation Laboratory	Samples collected in the field (e.g. soils, rocks, bones, and plants) are processed using crushers, polishers, cutters, sieves, centrifuges, etc.
18	Sample Storage	Sample storage is composed of four small rooms whose temperatures are different from each other: an ordinary-temperature room (20^°C), a refrigerating room (5^°C), and two freezer rooms (-10^°C and -30^°C). Snow ice, water, and biological materials are kept in the storage.
	Flammable	This room is divided into three small rooms. Dangerous materials are kept in safe in rooms 1 and 2, and waste solutions are kept in room 3.