Device for finely resolved sampling of littoral lake regions: Design and operation

Although littoral regions in northern lakes may sustain fish spawning grounds, little is known of the temporal or spatial aspects of their thermal and chemical regimes. This shortcoming is due in part to the difficulty in properly sampling these regions throughout the year with adequate spatial resolution. This problem is especially critical in lakes affected by episodic acidification during the spring snowmelt, a period of substantial importance to fisheries recruitment. A device was constructed to alleviate the problems associated with conventional water quality sampling of littoral regions. Constructed of thick walled polyvinyl chloride and permanently installed in the nearshore regions of an Adirondack lake, the episodic event sampler (EES) provided finely resolved (0.25 m) temperature and water chemistry data during the spring snowmelt period (February to May) of 1989. Although the construction and installation of the sampler represented a significant investment in labour and materials, this was offset by the high quality of the data collected. As the samplers were relatively undamaged by freeze‐thaw activity, it is expected that they will continue to provide excellent information for several years.