Transient Retention of Floating Particles Captured by Emergent Vegetation Through Capillarity

This work presents and discusses a series of experiments focusing on the transport of floating particles, mimicking seeds and propagules, within an array of randomly arranged cylinders mimicking emergent vegetation stems. The focus is on the temporary capture process by which particles colliding wit...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water resources research 2022-06, Vol.58 (6), p.n/a
Main Authors: Shi, Wei, Peruzzo, Paolo, Defina, Andrea
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arrays
Capillarity
Cylinders
Density
dispersion
Emergent aquatic plants
Emergent vegetation
Floating
Flow velocity
hydrochory
Mimicry
Probability theory
Propagules
Retention
Retention time
Small mammals
Stems
Surface tension
Vegetation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This work presents and discusses a series of experiments focusing on the transport of floating particles, mimicking seeds and propagules, within an array of randomly arranged cylinders mimicking emergent vegetation stems. The focus is on the temporary capture process by which particles colliding with a cylinder are trapped by surface tension for finite but relatively long retention times, thus promoting a large mechanical dispersion. Video analysis of the particle paths within the array shows that the probability of particles being captured, either temporarily or permanently, as well as the mean retention time, vary with flow velocity while being weakly affected by stem density. On the contrary, stem density plays a significant role in determining the frequency of the temporary captures; in particular, the probability of having temporary, rather than permanent, captures increases with vegetation density. We also propose some relationships to predict the probability of having temporary capture events and their mean duration based on experimental results. Key Points The probability that floating particles are captured by emerging stems is weakly dependent on stem density Temporary captures increase with stem density at the expense of permanent captures due to the turbulence generated by vegetation Mean retention time of captured particles is inversely related to the mean flow velocity within the canopy
ISSN:0043-1397
1944-7973
DOI:10.1029/2022WR031964