Instrument: Sediment Trap - Particle Interceptor
A Particle Interceptor Trap is a prototype sediment trap designed in the mid 1990s to segregate 'swimmers' from sinking particulate material sampled from the water column. The prototype trap used 'segregation plates' to deflect and segregate 'swimmers' while a series of funnels collected sinking particles in a chamber (see Dennis A. Hansell and Jan A. Newton. September 1994. Design and Evaluation of a "Swimmer"-Segregating Particle Interceptor Trap, Limnology and Oceanography, Vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 1487-1495).
"Based on the design of a closing plankton net capable of collecting large amounts (~1 g) of very fresh sinking particulate material in short time periods (24-36 h) to facilitate microbial decomposition experiment." (Peterson et al, 2005)