LACMRERS

  • LACMRERS

    Supporting large river research and education

    A light brown building surrounded by green lawns with a sign in the front for the Lucille A. Carver Mississippi Riverside Environmental REsearch station

  • Learning about Rivers

    Students get a hands-on learning experience at LACMRERS

    Two smiling young women ride on a research vessel on the Mississippi River

  • Large River Research

    LACMRERS — the first academic research station on the Upper Mississippi River

    A man stands while piloting a research boat on the Mississippi River

  • Up Close with the Mighty Mississippi

    Getting wet is part of the experience

    A man pilots a pontoon boat on the Mississippi River, with a group of seated people at the front of the boat

  • Understanding the River

    A stopover for migrating birds and habitat for other wildlife

    A flock of pelicans takes to the air near a small island in the middle of the Mississippi River
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LACMRERS

Lucille A. Carver Mississippi Riverside Environmental Research Station (LACMRERS)

IIHR’s LACMRERS is a unique research facility on the Upper Mississippi River near Muscatine, providing space for in-depth study and education. Made possible by a generous gift from the Carver Foundation, LACMRERS offers well-equipped laboratory spaces and research vessels.

IIHR Facilities Map

Did You Know?

  • LACMRERS offers educational opportunities for students in engineering, biology, English, and more
  • Each summer, LACMRERS hosts a water-quality class, which gives students plenty of fieldwork time on the Mississippi River
  • Short courses for international students and STEM festivals (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) draw hundreds of K-12 students to LACMRERS
  • LACMRERS research staff have developed manuals on modeling tools that educators can use in the classroom
  • A man paddles a kayak equipped with specialized equipment

Laboratories & Equipment

Students on a research boat

Field Equipment

LACMRERS is equipped with an array of research vessels and sampling and monitoring equipment for biological and chemical research:

  • Nets and waders
  • Alkalinity kits
  • Multiprobes
  • River samplers (for parts-per-billion analysis) and autosamplers
  • A Fultz groundwater pump system
  • Teflon samplers
  • Churn splitters
  • Filters and bottles
  • YSI multiprobes (for dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH, and SpC)
  • Nitrate and turbidity sensors
  • Three self-contained underwater field fluorometers
Two men use equipment on a boat in a river

Sediment & Water Quality

Sediment:

  • A Sedigraph III x-ray analysis machine
  • An Ankermid particle size analyzer 
  • A gamma source radionucleotide tracer/spectroscopy system to reveal where sediments originated

Water Quality: Mississippi River water pumped directly into the lab can be sampled and analyzed in real time.

  • A Turner lab and field fluormeter, with lab spectrometer, allow algal research and rapid water assays.
  • IDEXX rapid bacteria system can test for waterborne pathogens, such as E-coli and fecal bacteria.
Two men operate coring equipment on a pontoon boat in the river.

Coring & Bathymetry

Coring: Vibracore coring equipment can collect core samples of underwater sediments, used for a variety of research projects:

  • Grain size and shape analysis
  • Depositional history
  • Compaction of sediments for structures
  • Sediment composition

Bathymetry:

IIHR’s multibeam echo sounder collects data resulting in a 3-D map of the river bottom for research, including:

  • Analysis of river management on corridors and watersheds
  • Documentation of habitat characteristics
  • Evaluation of scour around structures