Whiteside and Lindegaard 1980

Whiteside MC, Lindegaard C. 1980. Complementary procedures for sampling small benthic invertebrates. Oikos 35: 317-320.

These authors recommend the use of two techniques simultaneously for comprehensive sampling of benthic invertebrates in freshwater, soft-bottom habitats. Cores approximately 20 cm in diameter work well for sampling burrowing and non-swimming taxa such as oligochaetes and gastropods, while a funnel trap worked well for sampling taxa that migrate vertically, especially very small forms that would otherwise be lost in benthic samples during seiving.

The funnel trap consists of a plastic funnel fit into a 300 mL glass jar, placed open-side-down on the substrate, being careful not to accidentally trap any planktonic animals during installation. Only individuals prone to vertical movement were collected in funnel traps; all coleoptera in the traps were adults, while the majority of coleoptera collected in cores were larvae. One major advantage of the funnels is the lack of debris or vegetation to sort through during specimen processing. The difference in sampled taxa suggests that both methods would be useful in any strategy of freshwater-benthos sampling.