Modeling Microplastic and Solute Transport in Vegetated Flows

Abstract

Physical interactions of microplastics within vegetation and turbulent flows of freshwater systems are poorly understood. An experimental study was conducted to investigate the underlying physical transport mechanisms of microplastics over submerged canopies across a range of flow conditions common in the natural environment. The effects of changing canopy heights were investigated by testing two model canopies of varying stem heights, simulating seasonal variation. This study determined and compared the mixing and dispersion processes for microplastics and solutes utilizing fluorometric tracing techniques. A hydrodynamic model was developed based on the advection‐dispersion equation for quantifying microplastic mixing in submerged canopies. Longitudinal dispersion coefficients for neutrally buoyant microplastics (polyethylene) and solutes were significantly correlated within submerged model vegetation irrespective of the complexity of the flow regime. Hydrodynamic and solute transport models were shown to be capable of robust predictions of mixing for neutrally buoyant microplastics in environmental flows over a canopy, facilitating a new approach to quantify microplastic transport and fate. We compare the mixing processes for microplastics and solutes then propose a hydrodynamic model for quantifying the mixing in submerged canopies.

Experimental Study on Influence of Different Patterns of an Emergent Vegetation Patch on the Flow Field and Scour/Deposition Processes in the Wake Region

“…However, in spite of this complicated relationship between suspended sediment and discharge, it can be hypothesized that the suspended sediment concentration correlates well with the peak of the direct surface runoff in main channel. This situation is valid not only for the suspended sediment transport (Silva et al., 2023; Wang et al., 2021), but also the bedload (Wu et al., 2021), and pollutant transport (Stride et al., 2023) in natural vegetated rivers.…”