Soft bottom macrofauna: Collection and treatment of samples.

Abstract

The aim of these recommendations 1 is to standardize the methods used by different scientists for long-term benthos surveys, in order to increase the comparability of results for different areas and to enable, inter alia, detection of large-scale changes in the system that would not otherwise be detected by a single scientist. In these recommendations, soft bottoms are defined as those with sediments ranging from mud to, and including, sand. For descriptive surveys, macrofauna is defined as animals retained on a 1 mm sieve (mesh size 1 x 1 mm). However, if a finer sieve is used for some other purpose, the 1 mm sieve fraction should always be studied and reported separately to allow comparisons. For a more comprehensive treatment of sampling design, procedures, and alternatives, the reader is referred to, e.g., Kajak (1963), Cochran (1977), Elliott (1977), Downing and Rigler (1984), Holme and McIntyre (1984), and Baker and Wolff (1987).