Location & Facilities

The Aquatic Station is located in the H.M. Freeman Aquatic Biology Building on the Texas State University main campus, and houses the Texas State Aquatic Biology and Aquatic Resources faculty and graduate students. Students engaged in research are assigned office and research space at the station, and have ready access to Alkek Library and the Science Building.

The 30,000 square-foot Freeman Building, which overlooks 14 experimental ponds and the San Marcos River, is devoted entirely to teaching and research in Aquatic Biology and Aquatic Resources. It contains faculty and student offices, conference rooms, three teaching laboratories, six research laboratories, a large lecture room, a wet lab, and an array of instrumentation for aquatic studies, including atomic absorption spectrophotometers, gas chromatographs, liquid scintillation counters, nutrient autoanalyzers, total carbon analyzers, recording spectrophotometers, electronic microbalances, environmental chambers, toxicity bioassay unit, compound microscopes with phase contrast, epifluorescence and image analyses capability, a variety of research grade microscopes, and computer facilities.

The wet lab is equipped with holding troughs, artificial stream systems, and aquaria for laboratory studies. Artesian well water from the Edwards Aquifers is continuously supplied to the wet lab and bioassay lab, insuring a constant supply of high quality water for research. The Freeman Building also has a holding house with ten concrete raceways, which are gravity-fed from the artesian well. A variety of ponds also are located on the Aquatic Station grounds. Boats with motors and trailers are available for field trips and research in limnology, fisheries biology, etc. A full complement of limnology, hydrology and fisheries field sampling equipment is available.