Sorting Out Sediment Grain Size and Plastic Pollution

Grain-size distribution effects in plastic flow and failure

There has been considerable success over the past five decades in developing a phenomenological and micromechanism-based understanding of lastic flow, creep and superplasticity. Although it is widely known that grain sizes have a distribution in polycrystals and nanocrystals, this factor s usually not included in most analysis of deformation and failure. Experimental observations relating to th...

Grain-size dependence of plastic deformation in nanocrystalline Fe

Plastic deformation of nanocrystalline Fe was investigated by nanoindentation. Samples, synthesized by mechanical attrition, consisted of powder particles with diameters greater than 30 mm. The average grain diameters within the particles of different samples ranged from 10 nm to 10 mm. To avoid potential artifacts, samples were prepared without use of heat treatment, and measurements were cond...

Grain size distribution effects on phosphate sorption by fluvial sediment: implications for modelling sediment- phosphate transport

A sensitivity analysis was performed on a sediment-phosphate transport model by determining the phosphate sorption characteristics of separated size fractions and prepared size distributions of fine-grained ( < 64 jum) river sediment typically transported in two southern Ontario streams. The Langmuir equation was used to quantify phosphate release from the sediment. Results of the study indicat...

Marine birds and plastic pollution

The intrinsic properties and widespread presence of plastic particles in the marine environment have profound effects on birds inhabiting the world's oceans. Industrial and user-plastics composed of polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, styrofoam, and polyvinyl chloride are the most prevalent forms of plastic marine pollution. Their dispersal and accumulation, in average densities of 1000 t...

Editorial: Plastic Pollution