The obvious lack of correlation was now interpreted as evidence to the contrary, i.e., that particulate organic carbon
was not the anticipated limiting factor in microbial growth
and activity but that these were more likely controlled by
the availability of dissolved organic matter and inorganic
nutrients.
Summary
Unfortunately, dimensional misrepresentations of the type
outlined in this contribution pervade the scientific literature (cf. Flemming and Delafontaine, 2000), such errors
having found their way into models (e.g., Paarlberg
et al., 2005; Borsje et al., 2008), manuals (e.g., Gray and
Elliot, 2009), and environmental guidelines and directives
(e.g., Bjørgesæter and Gray, 2008). On the other hand,
since the content versus concentration issue was raised
by Flemming and Delafontaine (2000), an increasing
number of investigations and textbooks have recognized
the need to switch to volumetric units for intercomparisons of sedimentary abiotic and biotic parameters (e.g.,
Perkins et al., 2003; Köster et al., 2005; Tolhurst et al.,
2005; Jesus et al., 2006; Chapman and Tolhurst, 2007;
Tolhurst et al., 2008; Giere, 2009; Leipe et al., 2011;
Adams et al., 2012; Kenny and Sotheran, 2013). This
has led to sometimes surprising interpretations and questions which would otherwise have remained obscure.
Meeting such challenges will be greatly facilitated by
recent progress in the development of remote sensing
and other instrumentation for the in situ appraisal of mass
physical sediment properties at various spatial scales (e.g.,
de Groot et al., 2009; Jacobs et al., 2009; Ha et al., 2010;
Barry et al., 2012; L’Esperance et al., 2013).
Bibliography
Adams, C. A., Andrews, J. E., and Jickells, T., 2012. Nitrous oxide
and methane fluxes vs. carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous burial
in new intertidal and saltmarsh sediments. Science of the Total
Environment, 434, 240–251.
Barry, M. A., Johnson, B. D., and Boudreau, B. P., 2012. A new
instrument for high-resolution in situ assessment of Young’s
modulus in shallow cohesive sediments. Geo-Marine Letters,
32, 349–357.
Bartholomä, A., Flemming, B. W., and Delafontaine, M. T., 2000.
Mass balancing the seasonal turnover of mud and sand in the
vicinity of an intertidal mussel bank in the Wadden Sea
(southern North Sea). In Flemming, B. W., Delafontaine,
M. T., and Liebezeit, G. (eds.), Muddy Coast Dynamics and
Resource Management. London: Elsevier, pp. 85–106.
Bird, D. F., and Duarte, C. M., 1989. Bacteria-organic matter relationship in sediments: a case of spurious correlation. Canadian
Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science, 46, 904–908.
Bjørgesæter, A., and Gray, J. S., 2008. Setting sediment quality
guidelines: a simple yet effective method. Marine Pollution
Bulletin, 57, 221–235.
Borsje, B. W., Hulscher, S. J. M. H., de Vries, M. B., and de Boer,
G. J., 2008. Modeling large scale cohesive sediment transport
by including biological activity. In Dohmen-Janssen, C. M.,
and Hulscher, S. J. M. H. (eds.), River, Coastal and Estuarine
Morphodynamics – RCEM 2007. London: Taylor & Francis
Group, pp. 255–262.
Carver, R. E. (ed.), 1971. Procedures in Sedimentary Petrology.
New York: Wiley-Interscience.
Casagrande, A., 1948. Classification and identification of
soils. American Society of Civil Engineers Transactions, 113,
1–901.
Chapman, M. G., and Tolhurst, T. J., 2007. Relationships between
benthic macrofauna and biogeochemical properties of sediments
at different spatial scales among different habitats in mangrove
forests. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology,
343, 96–109.
de Groot, A. V., van der Graaf, E. R., de Meijer, R. J., and Maučec,
M., 2009. Sensitivity of in-situ g-ray spectra to soil density and
water content. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics
Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors
and Associated Equipment, 600, 519–523.
Delafontaine, M. T., Flemming, B. W., and Bartholomä, A., 2000.
Mass balancing the seasonal turnover of POC in mud and sand
on a back-barrier tidal flat (southern North Sea). In Flemming,
B. W., Delafontaine, M. T., and Liebezeit, G. (eds.), Muddy
Coast Dynamics and Resource Management. London: Elsevier,
pp. 107–124.
Delafontaine, M. T., Flemming, B. W., and Thimm, M., 2004.
Large-scale trends in some mass physical properties of Danish
Wadden Sea sediments, and implications for organism-sediment
interactions. Danish Journal of Geography, 104, 57–69.
Dunn, I. S., Anderson, L. R., and Kiefer, F. W., 1980. Fundamentals
of Geotechnical Analysis. New York: Wiley.
Faas, R. W., 1991. Rheological boundaries of mud: where are the
limits? Geo-Marine Letters, 11, 143–146.
Flemming, B. W., 2000. A revised textural classification of gravelfree muddy sediments on the basis of ternary diagrams. Continental Shelf Research, 20, 1125–1137.
Flemming, B. W., 2011. Geology, morphology and sedimentology
of estuaries and coasts. In Flemming, B. W., and Hansom, J. D.
(eds.), Treatise on Estuaries and Coasts. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Estuarine and Coastal Geology and Morphology, Vol.
3, pp. 7–38.
Flemming, B. W., 2012. Siliciclastic back-barrier tidal flats. In
Davis, R. A., and Dalrymple, R. W. (eds.), Principles of Tidal
Sedimentology. New York: Springer, pp. 231–267.
Flemming, B. W., and Delafontaine, M. T., 2000. Mass physical
properties of muddy intertidal sediments: some applications,
misapplications and non-applications. Continental Shelf
Research, 20, 1179–1197.
Giere, O., 2009. Meiobenthology: The Microscopic Motile Fauna of
Aquatic Sediments. Heidelberg: Springer.
Gray, J. S., and Elliot, M., 2009. Ecology of Marine Sediments:
From Science to Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ha, H. K., Maa, J. P.-Y., and Holland, C. W., 2010. Acoustic density
measurements of consolidating cohesive sediment beds by
means of a non-intrusive “Micro-Chirp” acoustic system.
Geo-Marine Letters, 30, 585–593.
Hillel, D., 1998. Environmental Soil Physics. San Diego: Academic.
Inderbitzen, A. L. (ed.), 1974. Deep-Sea Sediments: Physical and
Mechanical Properties. New York: Plenum Press.
Iversen, N., and Jørgensen, B. B., 1993. Diffusion coefficients of
sulfate and methane in marine sediments: influence of porosity.
Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 57, 571–578.
Jacobs, W., Eelkema, M., Limburg, H., and Winterwerp, C., 2009.
A new radiometric instrument for in situ measurements of physical sediment properties. Marine and Freshwater Research, 60,
727–736.
Jesus, B., Mendes, C. R., Brotas, V., and Paterson, D. M., 2006.
Effect of sediment type on microphytobenthos vertical distribution: modelling the productive biomass and improving ground
truth measurements. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology
and Ecology, 332, 60–74.
MASS PHYSICAL SEDIMENT PROPERTIES
431
was not the anticipated limiting factor in microbial growth
and activity but that these were more likely controlled by
the availability of dissolved organic matter and inorganic
nutrients.
Summary
Unfortunately, dimensional misrepresentations of the type
outlined in this contribution pervade the scientific literature (cf. Flemming and Delafontaine, 2000), such errors
having found their way into models (e.g., Paarlberg
et al., 2005; Borsje et al., 2008), manuals (e.g., Gray and
Elliot, 2009), and environmental guidelines and directives
(e.g., Bjørgesæter and Gray, 2008). On the other hand,
since the content versus concentration issue was raised
by Flemming and Delafontaine (2000), an increasing
number of investigations and textbooks have recognized
the need to switch to volumetric units for intercomparisons of sedimentary abiotic and biotic parameters (e.g.,
Perkins et al., 2003; Köster et al., 2005; Tolhurst et al.,
2005; Jesus et al., 2006; Chapman and Tolhurst, 2007;
Tolhurst et al., 2008; Giere, 2009; Leipe et al., 2011;
Adams et al., 2012; Kenny and Sotheran, 2013). This
has led to sometimes surprising interpretations and questions which would otherwise have remained obscure.
Meeting such challenges will be greatly facilitated by
recent progress in the development of remote sensing
and other instrumentation for the in situ appraisal of mass
physical sediment properties at various spatial scales (e.g.,
de Groot et al., 2009; Jacobs et al., 2009; Ha et al., 2010;
Barry et al., 2012; L’Esperance et al., 2013).
Bibliography
Adams, C. A., Andrews, J. E., and Jickells, T., 2012. Nitrous oxide
and methane fluxes vs. carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous burial
in new intertidal and saltmarsh sediments. Science of the Total
Environment, 434, 240–251.
Barry, M. A., Johnson, B. D., and Boudreau, B. P., 2012. A new
instrument for high-resolution in situ assessment of Young’s
modulus in shallow cohesive sediments. Geo-Marine Letters,
32, 349–357.
Bartholomä, A., Flemming, B. W., and Delafontaine, M. T., 2000.
Mass balancing the seasonal turnover of mud and sand in the
vicinity of an intertidal mussel bank in the Wadden Sea
(southern North Sea). In Flemming, B. W., Delafontaine,
M. T., and Liebezeit, G. (eds.), Muddy Coast Dynamics and
Resource Management. London: Elsevier, pp. 85–106.
Bird, D. F., and Duarte, C. M., 1989. Bacteria-organic matter relationship in sediments: a case of spurious correlation. Canadian
Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Science, 46, 904–908.
Bjørgesæter, A., and Gray, J. S., 2008. Setting sediment quality
guidelines: a simple yet effective method. Marine Pollution
Bulletin, 57, 221–235.
Borsje, B. W., Hulscher, S. J. M. H., de Vries, M. B., and de Boer,
G. J., 2008. Modeling large scale cohesive sediment transport
by including biological activity. In Dohmen-Janssen, C. M.,
and Hulscher, S. J. M. H. (eds.), River, Coastal and Estuarine
Morphodynamics – RCEM 2007. London: Taylor & Francis
Group, pp. 255–262.
Carver, R. E. (ed.), 1971. Procedures in Sedimentary Petrology.
New York: Wiley-Interscience.
Casagrande, A., 1948. Classification and identification of
soils. American Society of Civil Engineers Transactions, 113,
1–901.
Chapman, M. G., and Tolhurst, T. J., 2007. Relationships between
benthic macrofauna and biogeochemical properties of sediments
at different spatial scales among different habitats in mangrove
forests. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology,
343, 96–109.
de Groot, A. V., van der Graaf, E. R., de Meijer, R. J., and Maučec,
M., 2009. Sensitivity of in-situ g-ray spectra to soil density and
water content. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics
Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors
and Associated Equipment, 600, 519–523.
Delafontaine, M. T., Flemming, B. W., and Bartholomä, A., 2000.
Mass balancing the seasonal turnover of POC in mud and sand
on a back-barrier tidal flat (southern North Sea). In Flemming,
B. W., Delafontaine, M. T., and Liebezeit, G. (eds.), Muddy
Coast Dynamics and Resource Management. London: Elsevier,
pp. 107–124.
Delafontaine, M. T., Flemming, B. W., and Thimm, M., 2004.
Large-scale trends in some mass physical properties of Danish
Wadden Sea sediments, and implications for organism-sediment
interactions. Danish Journal of Geography, 104, 57–69.
Dunn, I. S., Anderson, L. R., and Kiefer, F. W., 1980. Fundamentals
of Geotechnical Analysis. New York: Wiley.
Faas, R. W., 1991. Rheological boundaries of mud: where are the
limits? Geo-Marine Letters, 11, 143–146.
Flemming, B. W., 2000. A revised textural classification of gravelfree muddy sediments on the basis of ternary diagrams. Continental Shelf Research, 20, 1125–1137.
Flemming, B. W., 2011. Geology, morphology and sedimentology
of estuaries and coasts. In Flemming, B. W., and Hansom, J. D.
(eds.), Treatise on Estuaries and Coasts. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Estuarine and Coastal Geology and Morphology, Vol.
3, pp. 7–38.
Flemming, B. W., 2012. Siliciclastic back-barrier tidal flats. In
Davis, R. A., and Dalrymple, R. W. (eds.), Principles of Tidal
Sedimentology. New York: Springer, pp. 231–267.
Flemming, B. W., and Delafontaine, M. T., 2000. Mass physical
properties of muddy intertidal sediments: some applications,
misapplications and non-applications. Continental Shelf
Research, 20, 1179–1197.
Giere, O., 2009. Meiobenthology: The Microscopic Motile Fauna of
Aquatic Sediments. Heidelberg: Springer.
Gray, J. S., and Elliot, M., 2009. Ecology of Marine Sediments:
From Science to Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ha, H. K., Maa, J. P.-Y., and Holland, C. W., 2010. Acoustic density
measurements of consolidating cohesive sediment beds by
means of a non-intrusive “Micro-Chirp” acoustic system.
Geo-Marine Letters, 30, 585–593.
Hillel, D., 1998. Environmental Soil Physics. San Diego: Academic.
Inderbitzen, A. L. (ed.), 1974. Deep-Sea Sediments: Physical and
Mechanical Properties. New York: Plenum Press.
Iversen, N., and Jørgensen, B. B., 1993. Diffusion coefficients of
sulfate and methane in marine sediments: influence of porosity.
Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 57, 571–578.
Jacobs, W., Eelkema, M., Limburg, H., and Winterwerp, C., 2009.
A new radiometric instrument for in situ measurements of physical sediment properties. Marine and Freshwater Research, 60,
727–736.
Jesus, B., Mendes, C. R., Brotas, V., and Paterson, D. M., 2006.
Effect of sediment type on microphytobenthos vertical distribution: modelling the productive biomass and improving ground
truth measurements. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology
and Ecology, 332, 60–74.
MASS PHYSICAL SEDIMENT PROPERTIES
431