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Sediment traps are instruments used in oceanography and limnology to measure the quantity of sinking particulate Organic material (and inorganic) material in aquatic systems, usually , Lake, or Reservoir. This flux of material is the product of biology and ecology processes typically within the surface euphotic zone, and is of interest to studying the role of the biological pump in the carbon cycle.
Sediments traps normally consist of an upward-facing funnel that directs sinking Particulates (e.g. marine snow) towards a mechanism for collection and preservation. Typically, traps operate over an extended period of time (weeks to months) and their collection mechanisms may consist of a series of sampling vessels that are cycled through to allow the trap to record the changes in sinking flux with time (for instance, across a season). Preservation of collected material is necessary because of these long deployments, and prevents sample decomposition and its ingestion by zooplankton "swimmers". Traps are often moored at a specific depth in the pelagic zone (usually below the euphotic zone or mixed layer) in a particular location, but some are so-called Lagrangian traps that drift with the surrounding (though they may remain at a fixed depth). These latter traps travel with the biological systems that they study, while moored traps are subject to variability introduced by different systems (or states of systems) "passing by". However, because of their fixed location moored traps are straightforward to recover for analysis of their measurements. Lagrangian traps must surface at a predetermined time, and report their position (usually via satellite) in order to be recovered.
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