Comparability of Suspended-Sediment Concentration and Total Suspended Solids Data

摘要

Two laboratory analytical methods-suspended-sediment concentration (SSC) andtotal suspended solids (TSS)-are predominantly used to quantify concentrations of suspended solid-phase material in surface waters of the United States. The analytical methods differ. SSC data are produced by measuring the dry weight of all the sediment from a known volume of a water-sediment mixture. TSS data are produced by several methods, most of which entail measuring the dry weight of sediment from a known volume of a subsample of the original. An evaluation of 3,235 paired SSC and TSS data, of which 860 SSC values include percentages of sand-size material, shows bias in the relation between SSC and TSS-SSC values tend to increase at a greater rate than their corresponding paired TSS values.