Technical Bulletin No. 0489: Recent Studies on the Comparison of In-Situ and Laboratory Sediment Oxygen Demand Measurement Techniques

Because there were few controlled studies that directly compared in-situ and laboratory core measurements, the utility of laboratory based SOD tests had not been determined. This bulletin describes a controlled study designed to compare in-situ and laboratory core SOD measurements at two locations with different sediment characteristics. The results supported previous NCASI findings relative to the importance of over bottom water velocity on the SOD rate, and suggested that SOD measurements using laboratory sediment cores could replace the more expensive and time consuming in-situ procedure.