The sediment trap
Origin of the project
I was contacted by a marine biology researcher whose studying "the ecological factors that influence tropical shallow-water black coral diversity by focusing on the functional link between their habitat and diversity."
One of these factors is the sedimentation occurring in the coral reef.
They need a device that will be put on a coral reef to catch the sediments over 1 year: a sediment trap.
The sediment will be catch in a cylindrical container. The sediments will form different layers allowing to study how their density and composition change across time.
If possible, markers should be dropped each month in the container as timestamps.
Existing devices
Conceptual sketches
The sediment trap can be divided in three parts:
- a funnel, in black. Its top is a grid. This grid's purpose is to create a calm space catching the sediments and allowing them to fall in the funnel.
- A sediment collector tube, in red. Its goal is to obviously to collect the sediments. It must be removable and is contained in another tube which is the body of the trap.
- A disk dispenser, in blue. It will drop a disk in the sediment collector tube each month. these disks will serve as timestamp markers creating sediment layers.
Progress
- I modelled a first draft of the disk dispenser as part of the Computer-Aided Design assignments.
- After discussion with the biologists, it would be nice if the input grid could be made out of copper.
It would prevent marine organisms to fix themselves on the grid (a phenomenon known as biofouling.
I imagine making it out of interlocked combs, They will be manufactured with CNC machine or maybe water-cutter.