A Closing Artificial Substrate Device for Sampling Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Deep Rivers

Abstract

A cone-shaped wire basket filled with substrate material and closed by means of an inverted weighted funnel was found to alleviate the problem of loss of fauna during retrieval. This style of basket was found to collect the same groups of organisms in similar proportions as a conventional cylindrical wire basket operated by a diver. Loss of organisms was less than 1% of the total collected and was proportional among the taxa.