Application of sediment end-member analysis for understanding sediment fluxes, northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana

By: , and 

Links

Abstract

We analyzed grain-size distributions (GSDs) from a time-series of sediment samples to evaluate sediment transport following anthropogenic sand-berm emplacement at the northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana. End-member analysis (EMA) was applied to compare the end-member (EM) GSD of a known sediment source to GSDs from surrounding environments and characterize the physical redistribution of source sediment over time. Although we successfully modeled a proxy borrow-source EM using pre-emplacement (2007-2008) datasets, this EM is not easily distinguishable from the modeled emergent-island EM, possibly because the baseline dataset did not provide the necessary sample distribution to distinguish the range of depositional environments. Comparison of post-emplacement (2012) samples from the berm and natural island with the proxy borrow-source EM suggests that this application of EMA can be a valuable tool for understanding sediment redistribution subsequent to restoration efforts, especially if the GSDs of the emplaced and naturally-occurring sediments are dissimilar and adequately sampled.

Study Area

Publication type Conference Paper
Title Application of sediment end-member analysis for understanding sediment fluxes, northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana
DOI 10.1142/9789811204487_0003
Year Published 2019
Language English
Publisher World Scientific Co. Pte. Ltd.
Contributing office(s) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Description 14 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Subtype Conference publication
Larger Work Title Coastal Sediments 2019—Proceedings of the 9th International Conference
First page 25
Last page 38
Conference Title Coastal Sediments 2019
Conference Location Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida
Conference Date May 27-31, 2019
Country United States
State Louisiana
Other Geospatial Northern Chandeleur Islands
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details