Progressive grain-size sorting along an intertidal energy gradient

Along a 2 km NW-SE transect along the energy gradient of an intertidal sand body of the back-barrier tidal flats of Spiekeroog island (German Wadden Sea, southern North Sea), three sets of closely spaced surface sediment samples were taken at different times to investigate whether the effects of progressive size sorting could be identified in the textural parameters and size-frequency curves of the sediments. Grain-sizes analyses were carried out with a high-resolution settling tube having an internal resolution of 1/50-psi intervals. The settling velocity data were subsequently transformed numerically into equivalent settling diameters on the basis of a quartz sphere standard. At this high resolution, it was possible to visualize subtle changes in textural parameters which would not have been resolved by standard 0.25-phi sieve analyses. The first two sample sets of 1992 and 1994 show similar trends of progressive fining in the sediment, combined with a slight decrease in skewness and sorting in the direction of decreasing energy. Ten years later, in 2003, the sediments were slightly coarser but still reflected the hydrodynamic energy gradient by a distinct fining trend along the transect. However, in contrast to the former data sets, the skewness values now remained constant, whereas the sorting values revealed the existence of two overlapping hydrodynamic energy regimes on the tidal flat. The better sorting in the coarser size fractions and the general coarsening trend in the central part of the tidal flat are interpreted to reflect an increase in the hydrodynamic energy level since the first two sample sets were collected. This observation suggests that some of the finer particles in the grain-size spectrum on the tidal flat were winnowed out by wave action without, however, completely obliterating the former trend. This interpretation is supported by an increase in the frequency and duration of strong winds as recorded by the national weather bureau since the early 1990s. The results of the study demonstrate that the intertidal sediments of the Wadden Sea respond rapidly and sensitively to gradual changes in the hydrodynamic energy regime.