Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Consisting of fragments or particles broken or worn away.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Geol.) Pertaining to, or composed of, detritus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective geology Consisting of, or pertaining to, geological detritus.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

detritus +‎ -al

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Examples

  • Another critical point is that detrital feeders like sea cucumbers, brittle stars that wander around the bottom, I didn't see a living sea cucumber around on any of the wellhead dives.

    Rocky Kistner: Dead Baby Dolphins and Oil Wash in on the Gulf Coast Rocky Kistner 2011

  • Another critical point is that detrital feeders like sea cucumbers, brittle stars that wander around the bottom, I didn't see a living sea cucumber around on any of the wellhead dives.

    Rocky Kistner: Dead Baby Dolphins and Oil Wash in on the Gulf Coast Rocky Kistner 2011

  • Combined with greater DOC and nutrient loadings, higher water temperatures are likely to lead to a general increase in total stream productivity, although it is unclear whether temperature will have a significant direct effect on the processing rate of additional particulate detrital material.

    Effects of climate change on general hydro-ecology in the Arctic 2009

  • Heinrich events occurred during times of decreasing sea surface temperatures in the form of brief, exceptionally large discharges of icebergs in the North Atlantic from the Laurentide and European Ice Sheets that left conspicuous layers of detrital material in deep-sea sediments.

    Arctic climate variability prior to 100 years BP 2009

  • Hence, as vegetation shifts from mosses and lichens to grasses and woody species, runoff is very likely to contain increasing concentrations of DOC and particulate detrital material.

    Effects of climate change on hydro-ecology of contributing basins in the Arctic 2009

  • Most of the primary productivity is routed through detrital pathways but herbivory can be important, particularly by muskrats and geese.

    Wetland classifications 2008

  • "The quartzite shows granoblastic and blastopsammitic texture, with grain sizes varying from coarse sand to very fine pebble and with minor microcrystals of sericite, fuchsite, andalusite and iron oxide, besides detrital tourmaline, rutile, and zircon." link

    Archive 2008-03-01 ReBecca Foster 2008

  • "The quartzite shows granoblastic and blastopsammitic texture, with grain sizes varying from coarse sand to very fine pebble and with minor microcrystals of sericite, fuchsite, andalusite and iron oxide, besides detrital tourmaline, rutile, and zircon." link

    Geological Definition of the Day (#2) ReBecca Foster 2008

  • When the ice begins to break up in spring, the seaweeds are torn from the rocks and enter into the detrital cycle.

    Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, New Hampshire 2008

  • These photosynthetic prokaryotes and analogous eukaryotic microalgae, which commenced growing in the Pool when it first formed about 4000 years BP, trap and bind detrital sediment and thereby create organo-sedimentary microbialites or microbial mats, which have mineralized to form stromatolites in Hamelin Pool.

    Shark Bay, Australia 2008

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