Needed material: sample containers, large spatula or broad knife; Sharpie marker pen; field book; formaldehyde/Rose Bengal solution.

• Before taking samples (and getting muddy hands): label the plastic container for the sample with the date and the location, on the container itself as well as on the lid; make notes in field book on time of day, weather conditions, number of samples taken, their locations. .
• Use Sharpie markers, black only, in order to ensure that the text stays on when it gets wet.
• In a grab sample, try to determine as best as possible where the sediment-water interface is (e.g., presence of soupy material, worm tubes). Take a slice of the sediment of not more than about 1 inch thick of this material close to the sediment water interface. Use a knife or spatula to put the sediment in a plastic container.
• Cover the sediment with buffered formaldehyde/Rose Bengal solution. Do not let this solution touch your bare skin, and do not breathe the fumes. Stir sediment in solution with a spatula. Cover container tightly.
• Samples must stay in this solution for at least 48 hours; more time is OK. During this time they need to be stirred several times. It is best to keep samples in a fume hood, or tightly closed containers within another container.

Needed material: sink, plastic tubing on tap, 63 mm sieve, brush to clean sieve, blue stain, filter paper, sample containers.

• Before starting to wash samples through a sieve: label a piece of filter paper with the sampling date and location. Place filter paper in funnel atop a beaker glass.
• Clean the sieve: spray water through it vigorously, while brushing. In order to check for sample contamination: place sieve in blue stain, then wash thoroughly.
• In order to prevent contamination, the solution MUST be strongly diluted with water while washing/sieving the sample. Take a large (2 liter or so) beaker, shake the sediment in the closed container vigorously, and pour out part of this mixture, add lots of water. Then wash this diluted material through a sieve (63 mm); see below.
• Take the correct size sieve, place it in a sink, where the tap has been provided with plastic tubing. By pinching the plastic tubing you can vary the water pressure.
• The idea is to wash the fine material through the sieve using water pressure, while not breaking down the foraminifera. NEVER push sediment clumps through the sieve with fingers; take clumps between fingers of one hand, spray with water.
• The sample is done when the water running through is no longer pink, not 'dirty' looking. When squeezing sediment between fingers, no 'clayey' material remains.
• Gently flush the material in the sieve into the labeled filter paper in the funnel. Use a spray bottle to spray out all grains (spray from back of sieve). Repeat flushing through sieve until all material is on filter paper.
• Wait until all water has drained from the filter paper; if it does not do so within about 10-15 minutes the sample has not been washed well (more washing needs to be done). If the paper is stained bright (not very pale) pink, likewise the sample needs more washing.
• When all water has drained from the filter paper, the filter with sample can be lifted from the funnel and the filter can be spread out for drying at room temperature. This usually will take at least a day. Do not put the sample in an oven to dry.
• When samples are fully dried (material fall apart in grains), weigh the sample (record weight), and place it in the plastic sample container. Make sure to label both container and lid with date of collection and sample location.

Needed material: microscope, glass vials, foram 'slides' (aluminum, cardboard, glass cover), picking tray; thin brush (real hair, no plastic); needle; small spatula; 500 mm sieve.

• If the sample contains many large particles (> few mm), such as shells or rocks, it must first be dry sieved through the 500 mm sieve. Put the coarse fraction in a separate plastic container; make sure to label the container.
• Use a spatula to take a small, random sub-sample of the sample material, and spread it out over the picking tray. Spread thinly, so that grains do not touch each other. You MUST put all material on the spatula in the tray to prevent selection of specific grains.
• Look at the material on the tray: we are aiming to pick about 100 specimens at least. If there are zillions of foraminifera in the tray, put the material back in the container and take a smaller amount of material.
• All foraminifera must be picked out of the tray and placed in a foram slide, using a moist brush. Label the foram slide with sampling date and location.
• Put a small vial with water next to the microscope to moisten the brush. If the brush is too dry, forams will jump through the room and be lost. If the brush is too wet, large drops will fall off and you will have to wait until these have dried up.
• While picking forams, make notes of the type of grains seen in the sample: fly ash, diatoms, quartz, pellets, etc.
• After all forams have been picked from the tray, count how many specimens you have. If > 100, stop picking; otherwise go through another tray of material, and continue until you have >100 specimens.
• Put the picked material in a small glass vial, so that I can check whether you picked all specimens. After I have checked, this material from which forams have been picked must be weighed as well, and then it can be added to the original sample container.
• Sort the forams in the slide in groups that are morphologically similar ('species'). Count how many specimens there are in each species. Note how many specimens were alive at time of collection (stained bright pink when wet).
• Put data (sample, total sample weight, number of specimens per species, notes on sediments) in spread sheet.