PRACTICAL SESSION
 Frey sampling net with exclusion grill |
Live Material
It is often a good staring point to examine some live material. A zooplankton
sample can be collected from a small waterbody or lake using a range of
nets.
Littoral samples can be taken using a hand-held plankton net (0.2 mm mesh) with the mouth of the net protected by a hinged metal grid to keep out plant material. The net should be moved over the substrate and through any plant material present.
Click here to find out how to make your own plankton net.
Daphnia is an ideal study organism and it can be collected in abundance in open water in a vertical plankton haul. This haul can be made from a boat or pier. Alternatively, Daphnia is sold as fish food in some pet shops.
Click here to follow a detailed account of how to handle and examine live Daphnia.
Sediment preparation
Everything you need to know about sediment preparation can be found
in -
Frey, D.G. (1979). 32 Cladocera analysis. Handbook of Holocene palaeoecology
and palaeohydrology (ed. by B.E. Berglund), pp. 667-692. John Wiley
and Sons Inc., New York.
Click here to find information about sediment preparation on the Web.
In order to illustrate the diversity of species, it is advised that core material should be available from two contrasting lake types e.g. lowland, eutrophic lake and upland oligotrophic lake.