Fractionation of surface sediment fines based on a coupled sieve–SPLITT (split flow thin cell) method

In traditional sediment grain-size separation using sieve technique, the bulk of the organic matter passes through the smallest mesh size (generally 38 μm) and is not further fractionated. In this study, a common sieve separation has therefore been coupled with an extra high capacity split flow thin cell fractionation (EHC-SPLITT) instrument to separate the bulk surface sediment not only into size-based sieve fractions (>100, 63–100, 38–63 and <38 μm) but particularly to further fractionate hydrodynamically the fine fraction (<38 μm) using the EHC-SPLITT. Compared to the few previous studies using a smaller high capacity (HC) SPLITT cell, the EHC-SPLITT evaluated in detail here has several advantages (e.g., 23 times higher throughput and allowance for large particle diameters). First, the EHC-SPLITT was calibrated with particle standards. Then, its ability to fractionate fine surface sediments hydrodynamically was demonstrated with material from biogeochemically distinct regimes using two cutoff velocities (1 and 6 m d−1). The results from particle standards indicated a good agreement between theory and experiment and a satisfactory mass recovery for the sieve–SPLITT method (80–97%) was observed for sediment samples. The mass distributions revealed that particles <38 μm were predominant (70–90%), indicating the large need for a technique such as the EHC-SPLITT to further fractionate the fine particles. There were clearly different compositions in the EHC-SPLITT-mediated sub-fractions of the sediment fines as indicated by analyses of organic and inorganic parameters (POC, Si, Fe and Al). The EHC-SPLITT technique has the potential to provide information of great utility to studies of benthic boundary layer transport and off-shelf export and how such processes fractionate geochemical signals.