Characterising the erosional sortability of fine sediment

细沉积物及其成分的运输影响到加拿大沿海地区的健康和可持续利用。例如，沿海水域的通航性、沿海生态系统对海平面上升的反应、人类和其他生物对沉积物结合污染物的暴露，以及水产养殖和废物处理等活动对沿海海洋生态系统的影响，都取决于细沉积物的运输。更复杂的是，所有这些影响都与精细海洋沉积物的分选性有关，由于沉积物颗粒之间的物理和生物介导的凝聚力或粘性，这一点还没有得到很好的理解。本研究的目的是提高对影响海洋细粒沉积物侵蚀分选性的因素的认识。

The transport of fine sediment and its constituents affects the health and sustainable uses of the coastal zone in Canada. For example, the navigability of coastal waters, the response of coastal ecosystems to sea level rise, the exposure of humans and other organisms to sediment-bound contaminants, and the impact of activities like aquaculture and waste disposal on coastal marine ecosystems all depend on fine sediment transport. To complicate matters, all of these effects are tied to the sortability of fine marine sediment, which is not well understood due to physically and biologically mediated cohesion, or stickiness, among sediment particles. The goal of this research is to improve understanding of the factors that affect the erosional sortability of fine marine sediment.