Abstract
The late John Glew contributed valuable equipment to the paleolimnology community for successful collection and processing of cores of sediment from aquatic ecosystems. Unfortunately, tubes that fit his hammer-gravity corer design are no longer conveniently available for purchase and, with his sudden passing, Glew gravity and coring equipment is difficult or impossible to access. In some field-sampling situations, other commercially available equipment present limitations. Here, we provide an updated design of the Glew gravity corer which accommodates a hammer-percussion instrument and overcomes limitations we have encountered when coring lakes in remote locations from floats of a helicopter or small, inflatable watercraft. Our approach integrates the ‘best of both worlds’ provided by the Glew and commercially available Uwitec designs, using readily available components. We updated the Glew corer tube collar to be compatible with standard, commercially available 90-mm external diameter (86-mm internal diameter) PVC tubing that fits Uwitec components (e.g., Uwitec rubber ‘piston’ and ‘stoppers’; using terminology of the Uwitec catalogue), and designed a spring-loaded gasket-style plunger that achieves greater suction than the standard Glew designs. We also updated the Glew vertical sectioner to be compatible with 90-mm-diameter core tubes typically ranging from 60–120 cm long. An outcome is consolidation of the Uwitec and Glew gravity coring systems, which has allowed for interchangeability and choice among use of original and hammer-driven Glew, Uwitec, and the new hybrid ‘Uwi-Glew-ee’ gravity corer and sectioner configurations, depending on logistical constraints of fieldwork and anticipated lake sediment composition. The parts and systems are available from University of Waterloo’s Science Technical Services (https://uwaterloo.ca/science-technical-services/).
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We dedicate this paper to the late John Glew (1942–2019). John was a gifted draftsman, designer, machinist, scientist and artist — a rare combination of talents that made him exceptional in many regards (as described in John Smol’s (2019) memoriam). John Glew engaged with several generations of students and researchers who spent time honing their skills in paleolimnology at the world-renowned PEARL (Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory) headed by professors John Smol and Brian Cumming at Queen’s University, Canada. John Glew thought more deeply about aquatic sediment than anyone else we know and how to design equipment capable of obtaining undisturbed sediment profiles from aquatic ecosystems and section cores with a minimum of disturbance (except perhaps Prof. Dan Livingstone!). Generations of paleolimnologists have, and will continue to, benefit from the use of John Glew’s coring equipment, as well as his effective teaching about the artefacts and problems one has to be careful to avoid during core collection and processing (i.e., bow waves, core shortening, zone of thinning ahead of the core tube edge; Glew et al. 2001). We hope the modified corer, affectionately named the ‘Uwi-Glew-ee’ corer, and sectioner presented in this paper fosters a continuing legacy of John Glew’s positive influence on the field of paleolimnology.
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Telford, J.V., Kay, M.L., Vander Heide, H. et al. Building upon open-barrel corer and sectioning systems to foster the continuing legacy of John Glew. J Paleolimnol 65, 271–277 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-020-00162-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-020-00162-w