Mean grain size of beach and seabed sediment samples collected in the vicinity of Arey Lagoon and Barter Island, Alaska, July 2011

Sediment grab samples were collected on the barriers and nearby seabed on and around Arey and Barter Islands, Alaska in July 2011 and analyzed for mean grain size. 43 terrestrial grab samples were collected along 14 shore-normal beach transects (12 on Arey Island and 2 on the western spit of Barter Island) at the seaward water line, the berm crest or top of the island, and at the lagoon water line. 11 seabed samples were collected using a small pipe dredge deployed from a small boat; 2 in the vicinity of deployed oceanographic instruments, 8 on the ocean side of Arey Island, and 1 in Arey Lagoon. Two of the grab samples were sieved and analyzed for grain size distributions. Mean grain size of remaining samples was determined from referenced photographs of collected samples taken in the lab (Barnard and others, 2007) using two-dimensional spectral decomposition of sediment images (Buscombe and others, 2010). Results of sieved samples were used for verification of mean grain size values obtained with the image processing algorithm.