Author(s): Maria Ponce; Claudia Soto; Yomer Cisneros; Silke Wieprecht; Stefan Haun
Linked Author(s): Stefan Haun, Silke Wieprecht
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: The occurrence of microplastic particles (MPs) in freshwater ecosystems results in an increasing scientific attention in studying interactions of MPs with the aquatic environment. Reservoirs and lakes act due to the small flow velocities as sinks for MPs. As a result of their low density, MPs deposited in bed sediments may change the resuspension behavior of these sediment accumulations. This research aims at gaining knowledge on the influence of MPs on the erosion threshold and the resulting erosion rates of cohesive sediments. Experimental erosion tests are performed to determine the erosion evolution of artificial sediment mixtures with and without MPs. The first results indicate that the presence of MPs increases the temporal and spatial variability of erosion, provoking a more remarkable stochastic behavior of the erosion processes. In addition, it can be seen that resuspension is biased by the occurrence of polymer with lower density, but also the number of particles.
Year: 2022