Review and Analysis of Key Techniques in Marine Sediment Sampling

Deep-sea sediment is extremely important in marine scientific research, such as that concerning marine geology and microbial communities. The research findings are closely related to the in-situ information of the sediment. One prerequisite for investigations of deep-sea sediment is providing sampling techniques capable of preventing distortion during recovery. As the fruit of such sampling techniques, samplers designed for obtaining sediment have become indispensable equipment, owing to their low cost, light weight, compactness, easy operation, and high adaptability to sea conditions. This paper introduces the research and application of typical deep-sea sediment samplers. Then, a representative sampler recently developed in China is analyzed. On this basis, a review and analysis is conducted regarding the key techniques of various deep-sea sediment samplers, including sealing, pressure and temperature retaining, low-disturbance sampling, and no-pressure drop transfer. Then, the shortcomings in the key techniques for deep-sea sediment sampling are identified. Finally, prospects for the future development of key techniques for deep-sea sediment sampling are proposed, from the perspectives of structural diversification, functional integration, intelligent operation, and high-fidelity samples. This paper summarizes the existing samplers in the context of the key techniques mentioned above, and can provide reference for the optimized design of samplers and development of key sampling techniques.