NOTES
Sea, which has been attracting many geologists’ interest.
Trend analysis of sediment
grain size and sedimentary
process in the central South
Yellow Sea
1,2 3 2
SHI Xuefa , CHEN Chunfeng , LIU Yanguang ,
2 2
REN Hong & WANG Huiyan
1. Key Lab of Marine Science and Numerical Modeling, State Oceanic
Administration, Qingdao 266061, China;
2. First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Qing-
dao 266061, China;
3. College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University of Qingdao, Qing-
dao 266003, China
Abstract With the method of trend analysis of sediment
grain size, the sediment transport trend of the fine-grained
sediments area in the central South Yellow Sea was studied.
The results demonstrated that there is a sedimentation cen-
ter around the point of 123.4eE, 35.1eN, and the sediments
outside the center are transported to it. The patterns of
sediment transportation and deposition in the Yellow Sea
should be controlled by cyclonic circulation (including the
Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass) and cold water gyre. The study
also showed that the method of trend analysis of sediment
grain size has prospective utilization in the fine-grained
sediment deposited area on large-scale continental shelf.
Keywords: grain size trend analysis, sediment transportation, the
central South Yellow Sea.
Grain size analysis is a classical sedimentological
method which has been widely used in the studies of
sedimentary environment and sedimentary process. The
early studies relied mainly on compositions, various pa-
rameters and diagrams of grain size to distinguish sedi-
mentary environments and identify transport means of
particles. In the recent 20 years, many geologists tried to
recover transport directions and paths of sediments ac-
cording to the spatial distributions of sediment grain size
parameters. McLaren, McLaren and Bowles[1,2] demon-
strated that there is a relationship between net transport
direction of sediments and certain spatial variation of
grain size parameter, and three grain size parametersüü
average grain size (Mz or x ), sorting coefficient (V ), and
kurtosis (Sk) were commonly used to recover the transport
direction of sediments. Gradually, the method of grain size
trend analysis has been set up[3,4]. At present, this method
has been widely used in the study of coarse-grained sedi-
mentary environments such as estuary, coastal zone and
tidal channel, but it is relatively seldom applied to conti-
nental shelf[5, 6]. The central part of the South Yellow Sea
continental shelf has been considered as a typical
fine-grained sediment area. There is a large patch of
fine-grained muddy sediments in the central South Yellow
1202
Although the sedimentary processes, material sources of
the fine-grained sediments have been studied, the sedi-
mentary mechanism has been under debate[7ü12]. There-
fore, we tried to use the method of grain size trend analy-
sis to study the transport trend of sediments in the central
South Yellow Sea and gave a particular discussion to
utilization of this method in the region of continental
shelf.
When carrying out trend analysis of sediment grain
size, several parameters must be selected carefully.
Among them the distance eigenvalue (also is known as
comparative distance) Der is most important. Generally, if
the value of Der is too large, noises will be introduced; but
if the value is too small, some effective information will
be lost. Another important parameter is sampling interval
and scale. To lead the result of grain size trend analysis to
be true, the interval between sampling sites for compari-
sons must be as equal as possible. Moreover, the effects of
the physical, chemical and biological processes of sedi-
mentary media also need to be considered because there
are complicated relationships between magnitude of com-
bined vector and sediment transportation rate.
1 Sample and method
(ν) Sample collection and analysis. More than
240 samples of surface sediments were retrieved by box
sampler or grab sampler in two cruises of R/V Xiang-
yanghong 9 (the date is in May 1998 and from October to
November, 1998, respectively) which were carried out by
the First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Ad-
ministration. In laboratory, sediments were submerged in
distilled water and instilled into H2O2 and sodium hexa-
meta phosphate (Na2PO3) to make organic material oxi-
dized, then dilute hydrochloric acid (5% HCl) was added
to remove biogenic carbonate. After being scattered by
supersonic oscillation, each sample about 50 mg was ana-
lyzed by GSL-101B laser particle sizer and the grain-size
compositions were obtained. According to these data,
three parameters of x , V and Sk were calculated.
(ξ) The method of grain size trend analysis. The
concept of grain size trend refers to the variation trend of
horizontal distribution of sediment grain size parameters;
the grain size trend between two contiguous sites can be
expressed by a vector (trend vector). The mathematic
model of sediment transport trend is actually a model of
sediment dynamics. The basic hypothesis is that the vector
anisotropy of grain size trend is lied on the net transport
direction of sediments. In the common case, the changes
of grain size parameters behave two tendencies: (1) sedi-
ment grain sizes become finer while their sorting becomes
better and the values of Sk tend to be negative; (2) sedi-
ment grain sizes become coarser and their sorting be-
comes better and the values of Sk tend to be positive[5].
Chinese Science Bulletin Vol. 47 No. 14 July 2002
Therefore, it is possible to get the combined vector of the sediment transport from site a is
sediment transport direction, and further to get grain size ab  ac  ad .
trend of sediment transportation by introducing grain size Sampling sites should form equal interval grid in
parameters ( x , V and Sk) into this model and by compar- grain size trend analysis. In this case the combined vector
ing change trends of the grain size parameters in two con- could reflect sediment spatial transport and the noise can
tiguous samples at certain interval. be decreased to the lowest extent. But due to the limita-
The first step of grain size trend analysis[5] is to tions of seabed topography, hydrometeorology and sam-
compare every group of contiguous sampling sites in the pling technology, it is often difficult to get ideal equidis-
sampling site grid and get all grain size trend vectors. It is tant grid of sampling sites in the actual work. In fact, 165
easy to estimate if two sampling sites are contiguous or samples from more than 240 surface sediments fit trend
not by the comparative distance Der which is usually the analysis in this study (fig. 1). The sample density is usu-
largest sampling interval. If the actual interval of two sites ally 0.25qh0.2q, but the sampling interval is locally be-
is less than Der, they could be regarded as “contiguous”; if yond 1q, and the smallest one is less than 0.2q.
not, they are regarded as “separate”. The second step is to The equations used to calculate the grain size pa-
calculate the sum of trend vectors R (x, y) of every site. rameters are
The third step is to smooth R (x, y) and eliminate the
1 n
noises caused by the high-frequency variations of R (x, y) average value: x ¦ xi ,
in the figure of R (x, y). The planar distribution of trend ni 1
vector after smoothing treatment can display the pattern of standard deviation: V m2 ,
net transport of sediments.
The procedures of comparing sediment grain size m3 m3
kurtosis: Sk .
parameters and calculating transport vector are described m22/3
V3
as follows. Supposing the value of Der is r, and among the The x1, x2 , Ă, xn are observed data of random samples in
sites surrounding site a, only the distances from sites b, c, a collectivity with the volume of n, so the origin moment
d to site a are less than or equal to r, so point a can be of rank r can be determined by
compared with sites b, c, d. If the changes of grain size
parameters from site a to the above three sites belong to 1 n r
any case of two above trends, the combined vector of Dr ¦ xi , r 1, 2 .
n 1

Fig. 1. The study area and sampling sites for grain size trend analysis in the central South Yellow Sea.

Chinese Science Bulletin Vol. 47 No. 14 July 2002 1203

NOTES
There are the following relationships between origin mo-
ment and center moment:
1 n
m1 ¦ ( xi  x) 0,
n 1
m2 Į2  Į12 ,
m3 Į3  3 Į1Į2  2Į13 .
2 Results and discussions
(ν) Analysis of transport trend of sediment with
different comparative distance (Der). It has been realized
that the number of the sites attending comparison which
surrounds a certain sampling site will vary with different
comparative distance (Der) and the results of grain size
trend analysis will be obviously different. The best suit-
able Der could make a sampling site have the largest
number of comparative sites in the range of comparative
distance. According to the pioneer work of transport trend
analysis of sediment grain size in the central South Yellow
Sea, the values of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 and 1.5 of Der
(Euclidean distance between any two sites in the geodesic
coordinates) were used in turn in the analysis. According
to the results, the best suitable value of Der was selected
and a reasonable transport trend of sediments in the cen-
tral South Yellow Sea has been obtained.
As Der = 0.2, the comparative distance is less than
the smallest sampling interval, it makes many sites in the
study area be at the state of “zero value”, and the sites
with values are too few and isolated to reflect true trans-
port directions of sediments (fig. 2). Therefore, when Der
Fig. 2. The pattern of grain size trend analysis as Der = 0.2.
1204
İ0.2, noises will be artificially introduced and the effec-
tive information cannot be obtained from the figure of
grain size trend.
As Der = 0.4, the figure of grain size trend can rela-
tively well reflect the pattern of sediment transport (fig. 3).
Sediments in the study area obviously behave the trans-
port trend toward the sedimentation center at the
mid-north of the area. The transport pattern is mainly as-
sociated with the cyclonic circulation (including the Yel-
low Sea Cold Water Mass in the warmer half a year from
May to October) and the cold water gyre.
As Der = 0.6, the figure of grain size trend can give a
much better transport pattern of particals in the muddy
area in the central South Yellow Sea (fig. 4). The com-
bined vector straightly points to the center at 123.4qE,
35.1qN. This center is supposed to be the sedimentation
center of the muddy area of the South Yellow Sea, and the
net transport direction of sediments in this region points to
this sedimentation center in the central South Yellow Sea
from the around area. The pattern demonstrates that cyc-
lonic circulation (including the Yellow Sea Cold Water
Mass) and the cold water gyre in the central South Yellow
Sea[12,13] control the mechanisms of sediment transporta-
tion and deposition in the region. The combined vectors in
the southeast of the study area also showed that the cyc-
lonic circulation is characteristic of anti-clockwise in gen-
eral.
As Der = 0.8, the pattern of grain size trend showed
an extremely good transport trend toward the sedimenta-
tion center of the central South Yellow Sea (fig. 5). The
value of Der is too large, so that the comparisons between
Chinese Science Bulletin Vol. 47 No. 14 July 2002
 Fig. 3. The pattern of grain size trend analysis as Der = 0.4.

Fig. 4. The pattern of grain size trend analysis as Der = 0.6.

sampling sites are not limited between two contiguous
points, but affected by those non-contiguous sites in grain
size trend analysis, and the combined vector at a sampling
site has already been seriously interfered by the parame-
ters from non-contiguous points. So the obtained grain
size trend vector cannot be considered as an effective
transport trend of sediments. In other words, the pattern in
this case covered up some important hydrodynamic in-
formation which can be revealed in the case of Der = 0.6.
But whether it can be used for a long-term trend study of
net sediment transport is not clear.
As Der = 1.0 or ı1.5, the pattern of grain size trend
is similar to that in the case of Der = 0.8. The distinct fea-
ture is that the net transport direction of sediments points
to the sedimentation center in the central South Yellow
Sea. In this case, Der is much larger than sampling interval,

Chinese Science Bulletin Vol. 47 No. 14 July 2002 1205

NOTES
Fig. 5. The pattern of grain size trend analysis as Der = 0.8.
the sampling sites with abnormal grain size parameters in
the muddy area of the central South Yellow Sea may in-
fluence the combined vector of contiguous sites and even
the sites belonging to different sampling nets. All these
factors make the information distorted.
As shown above, when Der is equal to 0.4 or 0.6, the
results of grain size trend analysis are relatively reason-
able. They display the general net transport trend of sedi-
ments and the regional disorder of the combined vector
caused by hydrodynamic processes.
(ξ) The sediment dynamics of the South Yellow Sea.
The pattern of transport trend of sediment in the central
muddy area of the South Yellow Sea revealed that the
transport trend of sediment is consistent with the surface
sediment types and the hydrologic data. And these con-
firmed that there is a sedimentation center in the central
South Yellow Sea located in the vicinity of 123.4qE,
35.1qN. The combined vectors in the study area mostly
point to this sedimentation center and the outside sedi-
ments tend to be transported to the center. Meanwhile, this
sedimentation center is roughly located in the center of the
South Yellow Sea Cold Water Gyre. This kind of sediment
transportation and deposition trend reflects the important
feature of sedimentary environment in the central South
Yellow Sea.
Hydrologic surveys showed that there is a cyclonic
circulation all the year round in the central South Yellow
Sea, and there forms the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass
from May to October [12,13]. A cold water gyre exists in its
1206
central part. The combination of cyclonic circulation and
cold-water mass which form a low-energy, weak dynamic
sedimentary environment controls the transport trend and
depositional pattern of sediments in the region, and at last
forms the centrality of sediment transport trend. The di-
rection of combined vector toward the southeast displays
the characteristics of anti-clockwise gyre of cyclonic
circulation and the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass.
It should be pointed out that fine- and coarse-
grained sediments have different dynamic characteristics.
In marine environments, fine-grained sediments are in-
fluenced not only by hydrodynamics but by agglomeration.
When interpreting transport trend of fine-grained
sediments, agglomeration must be considered.
3 Conclusions
The analysis of transport trend of sediment showed
that the net transport direction in the fine-grained sedi-
ment deposited area in the central South Yellow Sea
points to vicinity of 123.4qE, 35.1qN, which is possibly
the sedimentation center in the central South Yellow Sea;
sediments have a trend to be transported toward it. The
depositional pattern in the Yellow Sea is controlled by
cyclonic circulation (including the Yellow Sea Cold Water
Mass) and the cold water gyre.
Transport trend of sediment in fine-grained sediment
deposited area in the central South Yellow Sea is consis-
tent with hydrologic data and surface sediment types in
the central muddy area of the South Yellow Sea, demon-
Chinese Science Bulletin Vol. 47 No. 14 July 2002
strating that the method of trend analysis of sediment
grain size is fit to the depositional area of fine-grained
sediments on large-scale continental shelf. Constant sam-
pling interval and suitable comparative distance (Der) are
the key to leading grain size trend analysis to be reason-
able.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Project of
“China-Korea Sediment Dynamics and Paleoenvironment” and the
Youth Scientific Foundation of State Oceanic Administration (Grant No.
97401).
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