Specimen bank facility

Paljakka Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) provides a high quality storage facility for the conservation of environmental samples. It includes nine fireproof storage rooms focusing long-term (>10 years) storage and supply of plant specimen for the needs of biomonitoring and environmental research. Only dried plant material is stored in the Paljakka ESB at the present time.

Main building of the specimen bank was established in 1994, and an extension part was built in 1999.

Total floor area of 770 m² includes

Storage space*	296 m2	Photo: Reijo Seppänen ja Jarkko Utriainen
Room for sample pre-treatment	50 m2
Offices	54 m2
Accommodation	24 m2
Auditorium and exhibition hall	120 m2
Two small kitchens and sauna
*nine individual storage rooms in the sizes of 19-62 m2 Total storage shelve length 3 960 m.

Real-time monitoring of air temperature and humidity is established inside the storage rooms to ensure accurate conditions, since stabilized storage conditions can increase specimen "lifetime" for decades or even hundreds of years. Both the ambient air inside storage rooms and air in storage bags and boxes are monitored.

All of Metla's dried plant samples that require long-term storage are lodged in the Paljakka ESB. Samples are pre-treated, dried and retained intact for future research. Reference moss material is prepared and stored in the Paljakka ESB for checking the analytical standard of laboratories participating in heavy-metal deposition surveys in Europe. Forest litter samples collected from a large number of stands in different parts of the country are also stored there to provide invaluable research material for contemporary science. Samples from several national and international projects are stored in the Paljakka ESB, including specimen from forest health and heavy metal deposit monitoring surveys collected as a part of National Forest Inventory (NFI) and ICP Forests survey.