The use of grain size trends in marine sediment dynamics: A review

Abstract

Spatial changes in grain size parameters (i.e. grain size trends) contain information on sediment transport patterns. An analytical procedure has been proposed to transform the grain size trends into an image of trend vectors, which may represent net sediment transport pathways. A fundamental assumption for such an approach is that the frequency of occurrence of the trend adopted is much higher in the transport direction, than in any of other directions. Preliminary studies show agreement between this assumption and observations. However, further investigations into the physical processes and mechanisms for the formation of grain size trends are required to improve the technique, including flume experiments and numerical modeling. Moreover, attention should be paid to the trends associated with finegrained sediment, for the method of grain size trend analysis is so far designed for coarse-grained material only. The processes of flocculation during settling and the wash-load property must be considered. Appropriate interpretation of grain size data will improve our understanding of the physics of granular materials.