The geomorphological-sedimentological laboratory is equipped for field work to recover short and up to 20 m-long sediment cores from lakes and to monitor the particle flow in the lacustrine water column. Furthermore, the laboratory is designed for the non-destructive and continuous investigation of sediment cores with physical methods and to perform geochemical analyses with a high sample throughput, as it is necessary for studies of high-resolution sediment sequences from natural environmental archives. The following devices with high operational capacity are available:
Field equipment
- Coring platform motorised with a long-shaft outboard engine and two different-sized rubber boats either with combustion or electric outboard engines
- Field generator (220 V)
- Surveying instruments including a differential Global Positioning System (dGPS)
- Sediment echograph
- Several gravity coring systems (diameter: 60 mm) to recover the sediment/water interface and surface sediments of up to 2.5 m in length
- Niederreiter piston coring system to recover long sediment cores (diameters: 60/90 mm)
- Hand-operated winch with a Ruttner water sampler
- Multiparameter sonde to measure temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, oxygen content and redox potential
- CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) sonde with turbidity sensor
- Computer-controlled sediment trap (Technicap PPS 4/3) for sequential collection of particle samples in the water column
Laboratory equipment
- Lake core repository, i.e. a walk-in cold room (+4°C) for the storage of sediment cores
- Mechanic core splitter for precise core splitting of PVC-liners with up to 90 mm diameter
- XRF core scanner (ITRAX, Cox Analytics) for major and trace element analysis including digital line-scanning and radiographic image capturing systems with a resolution of 200 µm
- Scanning system for magnetic susceptibility using Bartington MS2E and MS2F point sensors; this scanning device can be equipped with a loop sensor (Bartington MS2C) for whole core measurements
- Bartington MS2B sensor for frequency dependent determination of magnetic susceptibility
- Equipment to shock freeze, freeze dry (LYOVAC GT2) and impregnate soft sediments
- Petrographic (polarizing) microscopes and binoculars with conventional and digital image capturing systems
- CNS elemental analyser (EURO-EA, HEKAtech with TOC-kit) for the determination of total carbon (TC) - after removal of carbonates also of total organic carbon (TOC) and total inorganic carbon (TIC), total nitrogen (TN) and total sulphur (TS)
- Muffle furnace (NABERTHERM) to determine loss on ignition at various temperatures
- Continuous flow system with UV-VIS spectrometry (SKALAR) for the determination of biogenic silica
- Laser-granulometry (LS 200, BECKMAN-COULTER) for grain-size analyses ranging from 0.4-2000 µm
- Sieving machine (RETSCH) for grain-size measurements ranging from 0.063-20 mm
