Title: GRADISTAT in environmental sciences: a sampled review of the 21 years of the program application in environmental sciences

Authors: Temitope D. Timothy Oyedotun

Addresses: Department of Geography, Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus, P.O. Box 10 1110, Greater Georgetown, Guyana

Abstract: The study of sediment dynamics using grain size parameters is well established in sedimentology and earth sciences. To help the wide-ranging needs of researchers in the fields of earth and depositional sciences, Blott and Pye (2001) wrote a GRADISTAT program that is integrated into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This study reviewed 66 scientific articles principally found in ScienceDirect. Sampled research papers are categorised into six general groups and summarised in terms of the most environmental themes addressed. The themes covered in this paper are: the understanding of land-sea interactions and processes; sediment contaminations and pollution; impacts of sediment variables and transportation on macrofauna, vegetation and habitat; microplastics; soil genesis and movement; and, palaeontology. The ubiquitous nature of this application has shown it applied in many parts of the world. The GRADISTAT will continue to be a relevant environmental advance that is essential in classifying sediments in depositional environments.

Keywords: depositional environment; grain size distributions; GSDs; grain size parameters; textural characteristics.

DOI: 10.1504/IER.2022.122993

Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 2022 Vol.22 No.1, pp.43 - 66

Received: 13 Jan 2022
Accepted: 08 Feb 2022
Published online: 19 May 2022 *