SEDIMENT
Sediment samples can be taken in a variety of ways:
In shallow waters and in the intertidal zone simple PVC cores are used. In deeper waters, grab samplers or box corers are typically used to retrieve sediment samples.
The sediment samples are split into sub-samples for differing sedimentological analyses. Analysis of sediment samples can include sediment grain size, total organic carbon content, heavy metal levels, PAHs, PCBs, TBT, oil identification and dioxins. Sediment analyses is carried out in-house (grain size) and by a number of external laboratories, e.g. Complete Lab Solutions, Ros Muc, Galway, ALS Loughrea, Galway, the UK National Laboratory Service and IJ Labs, Dundalk, Louth.