[Coral-List] scotch brite sediment traps

[Michael Risk]

Good day.

I have stayed out of this thread for some time, but feel compelled to jump in here.

One of the ongoing problems in coral reef research is the individual re-inventing of wheels. This is nowhere so well demonstrated as in the efforts (mostly of biologists) to "measure" sediments on reefs. Virtually every paper introduces a "new" technique, which gives the authors a few seconds' worth of warm fuzzies and ensures the results can never be applied anywhere else. Virtually no one cites the seminal work of Gardner, in which various sediment trap designs were evaluated (and many discarded).

The LAST thing we need here is yet another method.

I direct interested listers to Storlazzi et al. 2011, Coral Reefs 30: 23-38, on the use and mis-use of sediment traps in coral reef research.

Mike

On 2011-07-11, at 10:05 AM, Todd Barber wrote:

> Scotch Brite (and less expensive versions of air filters, "horse hair"
> etc) have been used many times to enhance settlement of various larvae
> (such as lobsters when at the surface of the sea), and will usually
> colonize with many inverts and other marine life that would produce a
> lot of detritus) and many other biologically produced sediments (to
> numerous to mention here in detail)...therefore I would think that the
> Scotch Brite method would be flawed, unless the sampling period was
> very very short to minimize any biological components.
> 
> I have seen more commonly various mesh sized net bags placed along the
> seafloor at various distances from the bottom.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Todd R Barber
> Chairman, Reef Ball Foundation
> 3305 Edwards Court
> Greenville, NC 27858
> 252-353-9094 (Direct)
> 941-720-7549 (Cell & Goggle Voice)
> toddbarber Skype
> 
> www,reefball.org (Reef Ball Foundation)
> www.artificialreefs.org (Designed Artificial Reefs)
> www.reefbeach.com (Reefs for Beach Erosion)
> www.eternalreefs.com (Memorial Reefs)
> www.reefball.com (Reef Ball Foundation)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 7:31 PM, Andrew Fischer <amf26 at cornell.edu> wrote:
>> Has anyone ever heard of the Scotch Brite method to measure
>> sedimentation? Yes, Scotch Brite the scour pad.  Could you recommend any
>> method references?
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Michael Risk
riskmj at mcmaster.ca