Cheal et al. 1993

Cheal F, Davis JA, Growns JE, Bradley JS, Whittles FH. 1993. The influence of sampling method on the classification of wetland macroinvertebrate communities. Hydrobiologia 257: 47-56.

These authors compared three inexpensive and simple sampling methods for freshwater macroinvertebrates in five lakes near Perth, Australia. The five lakes had been previously well studied for chemical and other factors, and all were quite shallow with soft sediment bottoms. Plankton tows, sweeps with a D-net, and benthic cores were collected at several sites at each lake, and macroinvertebrate species richness measured.

These authors were primarily interested in the ability of collected samples to discriminate between lakes. In this context, the sweep net was most efficient, collecting active nektonic species that differed between the lakes. The sweep net was also most effective at simple species richness, collecting more species than the plankton tow at four of the five lakes and more species than the cores at all lakes. Some taxa, for example oligochaetes and gastropods, were primarily collected in the cores, though a few individuals were found in some sweeps. The authors conclude that the ability of the sweep nets to sample both water column and benthic / epibenthic fauna simultaneously makes them very cost-effective for monitoring biodiversity in wetland habitats, where time spent collecting and sorting invertebrates may be limiting.