Ecology of the past

When it comes to collecting sediments from lakes its all about having the right tools for the job. Working in remote areas of the tropics we tend to favour the Colinvaux-Vohnout corer; supplied by Vince Vohnout at Geo-core). The advantages of this system are:

1. its light-weight nature (can be backpacked or donkeyed into field sites), and 
2. the cam system (which allows hammering to penetrate tough sediments).
   

   Eric Martinez carrying an Avon Redstart back out from Laguna Khomer Kotcha (Williams et al., 2011a)

With the right platform (two banana boats and an A-frame) we have manged to retrive c. 20 m of sediment from  20 m of water (c. 40 m of drill rod extended); Lake Pacucha, Peru (Hillyer et al., 2009). More typically we use two Avon Redstart inflatables and a platform following the design of Colinvaux et al. (1999).

Recent debate on the International Paleolimnology Association list server saw recommendations for a number of other systems.

Including: UWITECH gravity corer, Pylonex gravity corer, Aquatic Research Instrument products, and modified systems by Jason Curtis at University of Florida.

I would be interested if anyone has any thoughts on the relative merits of these systems (or others) and there capabilities.

Photos and references below:

REFERENCES

Colinvaux, P.A., De Oliveira, P.E. & Moreno, J.E. (1999) Amazon pollen manual and atlas. Harwood Academic Press., New York.

Hillyer, R., Valencia, B.G., Bush, M.B., Silman, M.R. & Steinitz-Kannan, M. (2009) A 24,700-yr paleolimnological history from the Peruvian Andes. Quaternary Research, 71, 71-82

Williams, J.J., Gosling, W.D., Brooks, S.J., Coe, A.L. & Xu, S. (2011a) Vegetation, climate and fire in the eastern Andes (Bolivia) during the last 18,000 years. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 312, 115-126

Williams, J.J., Gosling, W.D., Coe, A.L., Brooks, S.J. & Gulliver, P. (2011b ) Four thousand years of environmental change and human activity in the Cochabamba basin, Bolivia. Quaternary Research, 76, 58-69