Meet our team - Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology

About institution:

Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology, founded in 1994, is a research institute and an agency of Daugavpils University. The areas of expertise are functioning and health of marine and freshwater ecosystems. LIAE works with such topics as marine environmental monitoring, remote sensing, marine spatial planning, ecosystem services, pollution assessment, taxonomy of water invertebrates and biodiversity.

LIAE office is located in Riga and holds instruments for various types of field sampling and laboratories for conducting analysis. The institute participates in national and international research projects as well as fulfils contract work for Latvian institutions. Currently LIAE employs around 50 people.

People:

There are three people involved in the project from LIAE – senior researcher Inta Dimante- Deimantoviča responsible for leading LIAE contribution and research assistants Valentina Burdukovska and Elīna Vecmane.

LIAE team takes part in sampling, laboratory analysis, preparation of reports and knowledge dissemination.

Photo: Latvian team during the seminar about lake management in Latvia when Lakes connect project was promoted (from the left) Elīna Vecmane, Inta Dimante-Deimantoviča and Valentīna Burdukovska

About pilot study in Latvia:

Gulbene Municipality is located in Vidzeme region, North-East of Latvia. There are more than 50 lakes in the territory of municipality and they are mostly used for recreational purposes. In the recent 5 years, Gulbene Municipality has intensified research, which has resulted in development of lake exploitation and fishery control rules for public lakes.

Lakes Connect project will contribute to the ability of the Gulbene municipality to better evaluate the anthropogenic impact on lake water quality and make further decisions to improve environmental sustainability in the territory of the district.

Project tasks:

LIAE attend the exchange visits taking part in sampling of microplastic pollution in lakes in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. They are responsible for collecting and preparing samples of water and sediments to estimate the amount of microplastics in the lakes in all countries as well as the collection of samples for chemical analysis in Latvia.

LIAE will identify current problem of local lake pollution and will share with society the state of the knowledge about pollution and possible impact of tourism to lakes condition. LIAE will share experience on good practices to reduce lake pollution, will be responsible for networking with local authorities and associated organizations, will organize training activities for local society.

In this project LIAE will be a leader in third group of activities “Raising knowledge and awareness of lake pollution”.

Read more about LIAE:  https://www.facebook.com/lheilv

Programme Manual Online

Choose