English: Natural particle size distributions in the ocean
Natural particle size distributions in the ocean broadly follow a power law over many orders of magnitude, from viruses and bacteria to fish and whales. Non-living material contained in the particle size distribution may also include marine snow, detritus, sediment and microplastic. The power law particle size distribution is the sum of log-normal distributions for each sub-population, four examples of which are illustrated in this figure. N is the number of particles of diameter, D; K is the number of 1 µm particles per volume; J is the slope of the power-law distribution.