Founded in 1995, the Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (MEL) was formally promoted to a state key laboratory in March, 2005. MEL is currently a primary research institution in China carrying out marine environmental science research. It was evaluated as one of the best state key labs in the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)’s last two nation-wide reviews (in 2010 and 2015).

MEL consists of 63 scientists and 93 technicians. MEL also processes two National Group of Excellence in marine biogeochemistry (sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China).

MEL is dedicated to cutting-edge research on global change. Emphasizing fundamental and interdisciplinary research, and utilizing technological innovation, MEL’s focus is on marine biogeochemistry and its interactions with the marine ecosystem. The research scopes are outlined as follows:

Scope 1: Marine geochemistry: Processes and Fluxes

Foci 1: Ocean Carbon Biogeo chemistry (Leading PI:  Minhan Dai)

Foci 2: Ocean nitrogen biogeochemistry (Leading PI: Shuh-Ji Kao)

Foci 3 Marine biogeochemistry of organic matter and metals (Leading PI: Dalin Shi)

SCOPE 2: Marine Ecology: Processes and Mechanisms

Foci 4: Marine microbial ecology (Leading PI: Nianzhi Jiao)

Foci 5: Ecological processes of plankton (Leading PI: Senjie Lin)

SCOPE 3: Marine Ecology and Toxicology

Foci 6: Ecological impacts of ocean acidification and UV radiation (Leading PI: Kunshan Gao)

Foci 7: Ecotoxicological Effects of Marine Pollutants (Leading PI: Kejian Wang)

SCOPE 4: Marine Ecosystem Dynamics: Observations and Modeling

Foci 8: Ocean Dynamics and Ecosystem Response (Leading PI: Bangqin Huang)

Foci 9: Ocean observation (Leading PI: Haili Wang )