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Multiple Tube Sampler for Benthic and
Pelagic Invertebrates in Shallow Wetlands

Management Implications

The multiple tube sampler solved many of the problems associated with pooled results of separate sampling devices. Even invertebrates that were exclusively benthic or pelagic were sampled in both the water column and the benthic samplers. For taxa that were exclusively pelagic or benthic, the problem was easily resolved by discarding benthic organisms from water column samples and vice versa. The problem was most troublesome, however, for those organisms that are associated with the benthic-pelagic interface and those that undergo vertical diurnal migrations from the benthic-pelagic interface to the surface of the wetland. In those cases, it was never clear whether a particular organism was in a sample because of an over or undersampling bias or because of a natural phenomenon. The advantage of the multiple tube sampler in those cases was clear because the entire water column and benthos were sampled simultaneously.
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