In our lab we follow a series of standard procedures which have been defined and tested to produce robust and reliable results. To allow others to follow these processes and produce comparable data, the protocols are listed and described below.
Attribution: Some of these procedures have been published as supporting information in a journal article. All are made available via a CC-BY 4.0 license, which allows you to use, share, re-use and improve them, as long as the source is appropriately credited. If published, please cite the accompanying journal article. If unpublished, please credit the “Blue Carbon Research Group, Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University”.
- 001 Oven Drying of Sediments
Drying sediment to remove moisture prior to storage or analysis.
- 003 Grinding and Sieving
Producing uniformly fine powdered sediment for further analysis.
- 004 Glassware Cleaning
Washing and furnacing glassware to remove contamination.
- 005 Concentrated Acid Digestion
Extracting elements from sediments using concentrated nitric acid.
- 006 Acid Decarbonation
Removal of carbonate minerals using hydrochloric acid.
- 007 Furnacing Organic Matter
Removal of organic matter from sediments using a furnace.
- 008 Preparing Elemental Analysis Foils
Adding sediment to tin foil cups.
- 009 Sediment Surface Sampling
Collection of the top 15 cm of sediment.
- 010 Sediment Core Sampling
Collection of 1 metre sediment cores.
- 011 Dry Bulk Density
Sampling and measurement of dry bulk density.
- 012 BHP Extraction and Separation
Extration, separation, acetylation and preparation of BHPs.
- 013 Dilute Acid Digestion
Extracting elements from sediments using dilute nitric acid.
- 014 Nutrient Extraction
Extracting nutrients from sediment using de-ionised water.
- 015 Total Suspended Solids
Filtration of water samples to remove and measure suspended solids.