Efficiencies of Various Grabs and Corers in Sampling Freshwater Benthos

Abstract

None of several samplers compared in limited tests in Lake Ontario gave realistic estimates of benthos in all substrates encountered. The Ponar and Shipek grabs, the only samplers that functioned in gravel, came closest to all-sediment samplers. In sand, however, the Franklin–Anderson grab appeared to be much more efficient than either of these two samplers. In mud the Ekman grabs gave the highest mean numbers of animals per m2.In trials in Lake Winnipeg profundal mud, hand-taken diver's core samples being used as a quantitative standard, only the Fisheries Research Board multiple corer and the standard Ekman grab gave quantitative results for total macrobenthos. However, the multiple corer collected significantly fewer chironomids, and the standard Ekman grab significantly fewer oligochaetes, than did the diver's cores. There were indications that the tall Ekman grab was either not tall enough or too heavily weighted for use in soft sediments and that a small improvement in design could make both this and the standard Ekman more efficient. Most of the samplers apparently sampled some groups of organisms much better than others. Neither the Ponar grab nor the tall weighted Ekman grab sampled the chironomid or oligochaete populations satisfactorily. However, both grabs indicated densities of sphaeriids not significantly different from the diver's samples.