scholarly journals Do legacy effects of deposited fine sediment influence the ecological response of drifting invertebrates to a fine sediment pulse?

2021 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria S. Milner ◽  
Ian P. Maddock ◽  
Iwan Jones ◽  
George C. Bunting

AbstractThe deposition of excess fine sediment and clogging of benthic substrates is recognised as a global threat to ecosystem functioning and community dynamics. Legacy effects of previous sedimentation create a habitat template on which subsequent ecological responses occur, and therefore, may have a long-lasting influence on community structure. Our experimental study examined the effects of streambed colmation (representing a legacy effect of fine sediment deposition) and a suspended fine sediment pulse on macroinvertebrate drift and community dynamics. We used 12 outdoor stream mesocosms that were split into two sections of 6.2 m in length (24 mesocosm sections in total). Each mesocosm section contained a coarse bed substrate with clear bed interstices or a fine bed substrate representing a colmated streambed. After 69 days, a fine sediment pulse with three differing fine sediment treatments was applied to the stream mesocosms. Added fine sediment influenced macroinvertebrate movements by lowering benthic density and taxonomic richness and increasing drift density, taxonomic richness, and altering drift assemblages. Our study found the highest dose of sediment addition (an estimated suspended sediment concentration of 1112 mg l−1) caused significant differences in benthic and drift community metrics and drift assemblages compared with the control treatment (30 l of water, no added sediment). Our results indicate a rapid response in drifting macroinvertebrates after stressor application, where ecological impairment varies with the concentration of suspended sediment. Contrary to expectations, bed substrate characteristics had no effect on macroinvertebrate behavioural responses to the fine sediment pulse.

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan T. García ◽  
Joseph R. Harrington

The River Bandon located in County Cork (Ireland) has been time-continuously monitored by turbidity probes, as well as automatic and manual suspended sediment sampling. The current work evaluates three different models used to estimate the fine sediment concentration during storm-based events over a period of one year. The modeled suspended sediment concentration is compared with that measured at an event scale. Uncertainty indices are calculated and compared with those presented in the bibliography. An empirically-based model was used as a reference, as this model has been previously applied to evaluate sediment behavior over the same time period in the River Bandon. Three other models have been applied to the gathered data. First is an empirically-based storm events model, based on an exponential function for calculation of the sediment output from the bed. A statistically-based approach first developed for sewers was also evaluated. The third model evaluated was a shear stress erosion-based model based on one parameter. The importance of considering the fine sediment volume stored in the bed and its consolidation to predict the suspended sediment concentration during storm events is clearly evident. Taking into account dry weather periods and the bed erosion in previous events, knowledge on the eroded volume for each storm event is necessary to adjust the parameters for each model.


2014 ◽  
Vol 670-671 ◽  
pp. 805-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Ming Huang ◽  
Da Ke Chen ◽  
Wei Na Zhang ◽  
Cheng Chen

The settling velocity of sediment is a hot issue and a basic problem in study of sediment transport and estuarine engineering. According to field hydrodynamics and sediment data around the South Passage of the Changjiang River in China, this paper detected the characteristics of sediment particle size and vertical distribution pattern of suspended sediment concentration, and further estimated the settling velocity of suspended sediment in three methods. The results show that the sediments including suspended and bed load can be categorized into cohesive sediments and the sediment concentration profile agree well with logarithmic distribution. Furthermore, by comparison, it is found that the Rouse formula is more reasonable for estimating the settling velocity of fine sediment, but the Zhang Ruijin and Stokes formula obviously underestimate the values of settling velocity, caused by do not taking into account the flocculation of fine sediment in estuary.


Author(s):  
John Z. Shi

ABSTRACTHangzhou Bay is a typical funnel-shaped high turbid estuary along a mesotidal coast of the East China Sea. In this paper, field studies are undertaken in an attempt to better understand tide-induced fine sediment transport processes in the Bay. Field observations were made mainly of current velocities (speeds and directions) and suspended sediment concentrations at six different relative depths and two stations in September 1992. Results show that (1) high near-bed suspended sediment concentrations varied from 1·81 to 4·00 kg m−3 during the spring tide and from 1·04 to 8·00 kg m−3 during the neap tide; (2) tide-induced near-bed fine sediment resuspension processes are indicated by several periodic suspended sediment concentration peaks; and (3) a hysteresis effect, or suspension-lag, occurs in suspended sediment concentration and resuspension events. Tide-induced fine sediment processes are mainly responsible for very high concentration suspensions of fine sediments in Hangzhou Bay. The occurrence of the suspension-lag phenomenon is likely to be common in other similar muddy tidal environments.


2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (9) ◽  
pp. 1867-1874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Davies-Colley ◽  
Deborah J. Ballantine ◽  
Sandy H. Elliott ◽  
Andrew Swales ◽  
Andrew O. Hughes ◽  
...  

Fine sediment continues to be a major diffuse pollution concern with its multiple effects on aquatic ecosystems. Mass concentrations (and loads) of fine sediment are usually measured and modelled, apparently with the assumption that environmental effects of sediment are predictable from mass concentrations. However, some severe impacts of fine sediment may not correlate well with mass concentration, notably those related to light attenuation by suspended particles. Light attenuation per unit mass concentration of suspended particulate matter in waters varies widely with particle size, shape and composition. Data for suspended sediment concentration, turbidity and visual clarity (which is inversely proportional to light beam attenuation) from 77 diverse New Zealand rivers provide valuable insights into the mutual relationships of these quantities. Our analysis of these relationships, both across multiple rivers and within individual rivers, supports the proposition that light attenuation by fine sediment is a more generally meaningful basis for environmental management than sediment mass. Furthermore, optical measurements are considerably more practical, being much cheaper (by about four-fold) to measure than mass concentrations, and amenable to continuous measurement. Mass concentration can be estimated with sufficient precision for many purposes from optical surrogates locally calibrated for particular rivers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-466

Artificial neural networks are one of the advanced technologies employed in hydrology modelling. This paper investigates the potential of two algorithm networks, the feed forward backpropagation (BP) and generalized regression neural network (GRNN) in comparison with the classical regression for modelling the event-based suspended sediment concentration at Jiasian diversion weir in Southern Taiwan. For this study, the hourly time series data comprised of water discharge, turbidity and suspended sediment concentration during the storm events in the year of 2002 are taken into account in the models. The statistical performances comparison showed that both BP and GRNN are superior to the classical regression in the weir sediment modelling. Additionally, the turbidity was found to be a dominant input variable over the water discharge for suspended sediment concentration estimation. Statistically, both neural network models can be successfully applied for the event-based suspended sediment concentration modelling in the weir studied herein when few data are available.


Author(s):  
Б. Дивинский ◽  
B. Divinskiy ◽  
И. Грюне ◽  
I. Gryune ◽  
Р. Косьян ◽  
...  

Acoustic methods belong to contactless measurement means, possess high spatial and time resolution. Thus, the use of multifrequency allows directly profile both concentration and granulometric structure of the suspended substances. In 2008 in the Big Wave Flume (Hanover, Germany) by efforts of the Russian and German scientists there have been carried out the experiment on studying the bottom material suspension laws under the influence of irregular waves. The Aquascat 1000 acoustic back scattering sensor (ABS) manufactured by British company Aquatec (www.aquatecsubsea.com), equipped by a three-frequency transmitter with frequencies 1,0, 2,0 and 3,84 MHz, has been set on distance of 0,75 m from the bottom and 111 m from wave generator at the total depth of 3,2 m. Several dozen series of measurements at various parameters of surface waves have been carried out. The general picture of suspension is so that the external dynamic influence (currents, wave movements, turbulence, gravitation forces) creates a non-uniform field (gradient) of the suspended particles and in most cases due to this the average size of particles undergoes to the spatial-time variations. For this reason while defining the mass concentration of suspended sediment, using the single frequency transmitter there is necessity for numerous definition of the suspension granulometric structure what by isn’t always possible. If two and more frequencies are used the observed results comparison can give the information on average diameters of particles and on that basis the calculation of suspended sediment concentration is possibleLet's emphasize the basic advantages of back scattering acoustic gauges usage: – Obtaining the particles sizes and concentration distribution profiles is possible; – The initial granulometric structure of bottom sediments can be unknown (at use of several frequencies). The following can be referred to some lacks of the device: – The system should be calibrated in laboratory conditions; – In a positive feedback conditions the iterative computing process can converge to zero or to infinity. In this case experiments with a variation of carrier frequencies chosen for the analysis allow partially solve the problem (say experiments with different frequencies pairs, as 2/1 of MHz or 4/2 MHz).


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