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[1] Measurements of suspended sediment volume concentrations, particle size and number density are routinely collected in marine and fresh-water environments with LISST-100X instruments to understand sediment transport, biological processes and fundamental opto-acoustic problems. A LISST-100X was simultaneously deployed with a novel holographic camera (holocam) in UK coastal waters to assess the performance of the laser diffraction technique when measuring natural suspensions. Volume distributions from the LISST-100X, truncated to exclude non-overlapping size bins with the holocam, exhibit an increase in small particles and median particle size is elevated in comparison to the holocam by 20-40%. We observe positive offsets between LISST-100X and holocam number distributions of up to 2 orders of magnitude for particle sizes between 58-218 mm, with discrepancies rising to 4 orders of magnitude for finer and coarser sizes. To explain these differences, a novel multiscale representation of particle size is used. The method quantifies individual dimensions that make up any two-dimensional geometrical structure, it can be used as a metric for particle complexity, and offers a plausible explanation for an apparent increase in small particles (<58 mm) reported by the LISST-100X. The results suggest that for non-spherical natural suspensions the LISST-100X may be sensitive to optical scattering from sub-scales within larger particles, reporting them as individual particles regardless of the way in which they may be packaged into particles of larger overall size. We urge caution in over interpretation of LISST size distributions obtained in natural suspensions without verification with independent particle imaging.

[1] Measurements of turbulence and suspended particle characteristics have been made continuously for 9 tidal cycles in a shallow, energetic tidal channel. Particle-size spectra were measured with a LISST-100 laser diffraction instrument placed on a frame on the seabed. A 1200 kHz ADCP in the same frame was used to measure vertical current profiles and from these the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate was determined using the structure function method. Median particle size is observed to change in a regular way by a factor of 3 or more over each tidal cycle, with the largest particles observed at slack tide and the smallest at times of maximum flood and ebb. The most likely explanation of this change is that particles are aggregating at times of low turbulence and breaking up during fast flows. A simple dynamical flocculation model that incorporates these processes gives good agreement with observations, particularly if tidal advection of a longitudinal gradient in particle size is allowed for. If particles have time to reach equilibrium with ambient conditions, the model predicts that the particle size will be proportional to the product of concentration and the Kolmogorov microscale. The observations support this prediction on most tidal cycles if a phase lag (of 30-60 min) is allowed between the measurements of particle size and Kolmogorov scale. This phase lag represents the adjustment time for flocs to respond to change in turbulence. The constant of proportionality between median particle size and Kolmogorov scale increases with particle volume.

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