A Simple and Inexpensive Method to Separate Live and Preserved Benthos from Sediments

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Abstract
We used a simple and inexpensive water-based method to separate live and preserved invertebrates from lake and stream sediments. Sediment samples were emptied onto a large screen and slowly immersed in water which caused the invertebrates to become trapped in the surface film from which they were easily removed. Invertebrates with setae or numerous appendages were separated most successfully, whereas dense organisms had to be removed by hand. On average 74% of all invertebrates per sample were removed by sieving in 23 minutes. We suggest that the time and effort spent sorting samples can be reduced by combining sieving with hand-sorting, especially when samples contain large numbers of invertebrates.

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