Abstract
A sediment-coring device for shallow lakes (< 1–4 m deep) is described. This device yields undisturbed sediment cores and quantitative samples of phytoplankton at the sediment-water interface.
The device is mechanically reliable and performed infallibly in a variety of soft and hard substrates encountered in central Florida lakes. It is lightweight (7 kg), not cumbersome, and can be easily fabricated from commonly available materials costing < 40 U.S. dollars as of June 1983. This corer is a simple alternative to the great diversity of core samplers in use today, most of them fairly expensive to manufacture.
This sampling tool is versatile in that it can be used by aquatic biologists and chemists interested in spatial and stratigraphic studies, pesticide residue chemists, sediment microbiologists, and sediment ecologists interested in studying the redox phenomenon.
Key Words: substrates • benthos • sediment-water interface • phytoplankton
NOTES
1 Florida Agric. Exp. Stn. Journal Series no. 3730.
2 Associate Professor, Univ. of Florida, IFAS, Agric. Res. & Education Center, Sanford, FL 32771.
Received for publication February 7, 1983.