A push corer developed for retrieving high-resolution sediment cores from shallow waters

Abstract

Shallow water environments are often difficult ones from which to recover undisturbed sediment cores, lending themselves to neither deep water sampling, nor techniques employed for wetland areas. The most simple and obvious way to obtain a core in water depths of less than 2 m is to drive a core tube directly into the sediments using some form of push rod or a percussion (hammer) device. A core driven by percussive methods, however, may be difficult to recover and sealing the tube may be problematic for retention of the sample. Here we describe a simple coring device designed for shallow water operation. The design contains elements of both deeper water gravity and directly driven push rod coring equipment. The device can recover cores up to about 1 m in length in water depths up to about 3–4 m deep. The sampling device has been tested over a number of years from diverse limnological settings (high and mid-Arctic lakes, temperate lakes) with consistently satisfactory results.