The field station is a part of the Limnology programme at the Department of Evolution and Genetics, Uppsala University. Since 2013, the Erken Laboratory is also a part of SITES (Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science).

The Erken Laboratory is located at the south-east shore of the lake Erken 70 km north-east of Stockholm. The station has an extensive environmental monitoring program for Lake Erken, including both manual and high-frequency automatic measurements, and participates in research initiates that investigate effects of climate change in lake ecosystems. The monitoring programme includes measurements of physical and chemical parameters, phytoplankton, and since 2014, greenhouse gas fluxes. The station also offers facilities for the implementation of experiments (e.g. mescocoms).

We host field courses in limnology and ecology and are engaged in a variety of public outreach activities, such as ‘water days’ for school classes and a research school for European students. We also offer various water and sediment chemistry analyses and counting and determination of plankton communities.