Scientific Director - RAS Academician D.S. Pavlov
The Floating Experimental Base is a permanently operating unit of IEE RAS with the status of a biological station. The experimental base includes an onshore field station and a guard ship with a river navigation class, built in 1975 at the Sokolskaya Shipyard and converted into a floating ichthyological laboratory. The guard ship's home port is Tver, and its area of operation is the Upper Volga basin.
The floating ichthyological laboratory includes a 35 m² experimental hall, an aquarium room, cabins, a mess room, and a galley, and is equipped with an autonomous power supply. The experimental hall houses a hydrodynamic flume with a water volume of 9 m³. Field material in the operating area is collected using a fleet of small vessels.
The floating ichthyological laboratory makes it possible to successfully combine experimental study of the behavioral and ecological characteristics of fish with field studies of the patterns of their distribution and migration in rivers and reservoirs. The laboratory carries out a broad range of studies on the patterns and mechanisms of fish behavior in flowing water, the theoretical aspects of which relate to the problems of fish migration and the formation of a water body's ichthyofauna.
At the experimental base, research is conducted on the mechanisms of downstream migration of juvenile fish, the effect of current velocity and flow turbulence on fish behavior and feeding, and the specifics of their distribution in thermal and pressure gradients with and without current. Particular attention in these studies is paid not only to individual elementary fish responses to applied stimuli, but also to the combined effects of various factors. The results obtained have formed the basis for the development and creation of a number of methods, structures, and devices for preserving natural fish reproduction under conditions of regulated river flow.