title: A bottom water sampler for determining chemical gradients across the water-sediment interface.
abstract: We developed an inexpensive bottom water sampler that can be operated from a small boat in order to obtain high resolution vertical profiles of dissolved oxygen (DO), chlorophyll, suspended particulate matter (SPM). These vertical profiles allow us to examine bottom resuspension processes and to estimate their benthic fluxes of nutrients across the sediment-water interface in shallow coastal waters. The sampler consists of a 2m long thick-walled transparent tube with 26 sampling ports at 8-10cm intervals. Each sampling interval contains a minimum of 300-370ml water samples. Test sampling was conducted twice during different tidal phases, and differences in bottom DO, ammonium and SPM were found to be significant between the two tests. Our results suggest that this bottom sampler is essential in order to study sediment-pelagic coupling processes by obtaining high resolution of various parameters in the 2m water column above the sediment.
authors.affiliation: School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai Campus, China.
authors.forename: Kit Yee
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.affiliation: School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai Campus, China; Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering in Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai Campus, China; Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering in Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, China. Electronic address: yinkd@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Kedong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth & Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.affiliation: Department of Design & Manufacturing Services Facility, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.
authors.forename: Kwok Kei
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Kau
mesh_terms: D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000032:analysis; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000032:analysis*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis; D012623:Seawater / Q000032:analysis*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D052638:Particulate Matter; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D002734:Chlorophyll; D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Bottom water sampler; Gradients of dissolved oxygen; Gradients of nutrients; Water-sediment interface