Methods
Water Profile1. Take Light, DO, pH, Temp profile every 0.5mUse YSI DO probe, pH meter, and Li Cor light meter. Take the light profile from the sunny side of the boat.2. Take Secchi depthLower Secchi disk slowly until you can never see clear boundaries between white and black quarters, record this distance to the surface of the water as lower Secchi disk observation. Then pull the Secchi up until you can always see clear boundaries between white and black quarters, record this distance to the surface as the upper Secchi observation.Benthic Net Primary Production1. Measure light, temperature, percentDO, DO, and pH at 0.5m intervals at the sampling location.2. Take 10 clean/undisturbed cores. Try to get a uniform distance between the sediment and top of tube, so the cores have the same volume of water. Cover in boat with tarp to exclude light.3. Collect water from the shore of the boat and measure temp, percentDO, and DO. Save in bucket.4. Measure light intensity at 0 (out) and 0.5m depth where the cores will be incubated.5. Set up HOBO light recorder on the incubator.6. For each tube, take initial temp, percentDO, and DO. Before taking DO measurement, move the DO probe up and down three times to ensure no DO gradient (but do not disturb sediment). Add, slowly and without bubbling, 10 to 20mL of water (just the amount needed) to the core from bucket (number 3) to ensure no air space, and replace the stopper. Measure the distance from sediment to bottom of stopper to the nearest 0.5cm (column_depth).7. Place cores 1, 3, 5, and 7 in dark chambers (opaque tubes), so there are 4 dark and 6 light treatments.8. Incubate the cores using the metal structure at saturation light intensity if possible (300 mol per meter squared per second at 0.5m depth) for about 3h.9. Before taking DO measurement, move the DO probe up and down three times to ensure no DO gradient (but do not disturb sediment), and then measure percentDO, DO, and temperature in each core.Light controlsOnce a month (June, July, August), on a sunny day, incubate 10 cores for 3h with different light intensities to determine primary productivity under different light intensities and different temperatures. It would be best to do this the day after routine sampling (i.e., when retrieving the benthic sampler) so that the results can be compared to those from the routine sampling. Different light levels are obtained using white mesh bags around the core tubes.Core 1 and 6, lightCore 2 and 7, 2xCore 3 and 8, 4xCore 4 and 9, 8xCore 5 and 10, darkIMPORTANT: After the incubations, measure light intensity inside a core tube covered for the different treatments. This is done by removing the light meter from the metal holder and placing it facing up in a core using zip ties and a blue stopper at the bottom. Then place treatment bags over the top and measure light when holding the core at the level they reach in the incubator; use the marking on the light meter cord to make sure this is standardized for all measurements. This should be done 8 times total (each bag plus twice without bags).Light saturationOnce a month in the summer of 2013, we conducted sediment core incubations with varying amounts of shade cloth applied to the cores. Sediment cores received 0, 2, 4, 8, or 15 layers of shade cloth, with two cores in each treatment. All cores were then incubated in the lake over the same 3hr period at a depth of 0.5m.Sediment Dry Weight and Weight on Combustion1. Remove 0.75cm of sediment from a core into a plastic deli container. This should be done on a fresh core. This is the same sample that is used for chl analysis.2. Subsample 5 to 10mL sediment solution and place in a pre-weighed tin tray in oven at 60C for at least 12 hours. When dry, weigh for dry weight.In 2014, the method for sampling benthic chlorophyll changed. Sediment Dry Weight measurements were taken from these samples as well. Below is the pertinent section from the methods protocols. Processing after the collection of the sample was not changed.Take sediment samples from the 5 cores collected for sediment characteristics. Take 4 syringes of sediment with 10mL syringe (15.3 mm diameter). Take 4-5cm of sediment. Then, remove bottom 2cm and place top 2cm in the film canister.3. Combust at 550C for 4.5 hours. Weigh tray.4. If not analyzing combusted samples immediately, place in drying oven before weighing.
