Abstract
There are 71 surface sediment samples collected from the eastern Beibu Gulf. The moment parameters (i.e. mean size, sorting and skewness) were obtained after applying grain size analysis. The geostatistical analysis was then applied to study the spatial autocorrelation for these parameters; while range, a parameter in the semivariogram that meters the scale of spatial autocorrelation, was estimated. The results indicated that the range for sorting coefficient was physically meaningful. The trend vectors calculated from grain size trend analysis model were consistent with the annual ocean circulation patterns and sediment transport rates according to previous studies. Therefore the range derived from the semivariogram of mean size can be used as the characteristic distance in the grain size trend analysis, which may remove the bias caused by the traditional way of basing on experiences or testing methods to get the characteristic distance. Hence the results from geostatistical analysis can also offer useful information for the determination of sediment sampling density in the future field work.
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Foundation: Chinese Offshore Investigation and Assessment Project, No.908-01-ST09; State Student Innovation Training Project, No.SIT-05; Program for New Century Excellent Talents, No.NCET-06-0446; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.J0630535
Author: Ma Fei (1987–), undergraduate student, specialized in geographical science.
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Ma, F., Wang, Y., Li, Y. et al. The application of geostatistics in grain size trend analysis: A case study of eastern Beibu Gulf. J. Geogr. Sci. 20, 77–90 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-010-0077-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-010-0077-1