New type of hand-held corer for meiofaunal sampling and vertical profile investigation: a comparative study

A new hand-held corer for meiofaunal sampling and vertical profile investigation was developed. Its design and use prevents problems connected with core compression caused by the use of a plunger for core extrusion as generally applied in common coring techniques. This represents an advantage when meiofauna vertical profiles are investigated. A comparison between vertical profiles obtained from the newly developed corer and from commonly used corers shows that non-extrusive techniques significantly reduce sediment core compression