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Hindered erosion: The biological mediation of non-cohesive sediment behaviour

Hindered erosion: The biological mediation of non-cohesive sediment behaviour
Hindered erosion: The biological mediation of non-cohesive sediment behaviour
Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are ubiquitous on tidal flats but their impact on sediment erosion has not been fully understood. Laboratory-controlled sediment beds were incubated with Bacillus subtilis for 5, 10, 16 and 22 days before the erosion experiments, to study the temporal and spatial variations in sediment stability caused by the bacterial secreted EPS. We found the bio-sedimentary systems showed different erosional behaviour related to biofilm maturity and EPS distribution. In the first stage (5 days), the bio-sedimentary bed was more easily eroded than the clean sediment. With increasing growth period, bound EPS became more widely distributed over the vertical profile resulting in bed stabilisation. After 22 days, the bound EPS was highly concentrated within a surface biofilm, but a relatively high content also extended to a depth of 5 mm and then decayed sharply with depth. The biofilm increased the critical shear stress of the bed and furthermore, it enabled the bed to withstand threshold conditions for an increased period of time as the biofilm degraded before eroding. After the loss of biofilm protection, the high EPS content in the sub-layers continued to stabilise the sediment (hindered erosion) by binding individual grains, as visualized by electron microscopy. Consequently, the bed strength did not immediately revert to the abiotic condition but progressively adjusted, reflecting the depth profile of the EPS. Our experiments highlight the need to treat the EPS-sediment conditioning as a bed-age associated and depth-dependent variable that should be included in the next generation of sediment transport models.
0043-1397
4787–4801
Chen, X.D.
12758557-9723-4d44-9eae-8e7c599f2e18
Zhang, C.K.
55123a6d-5153-421e-90c2-0ffef5b2977f
Paterson, D.M.
2793dd09-9543-49bd-a3ac-6a34a1989234
Thompson, C.E.L.
2a304aa6-761e-4d99-b227-cedb67129bfb
Townend, I.H.
f72e5186-cae8-41fd-8712-d5746f78328e
Gong, Z.
8fec227f-4dcc-431e-85c3-13a520574886
Zhou, Z.
243ed989-77fd-46f8-b120-a4bd5aa7efbd
Feng, Q.
27489082-885d-4e6d-868e-3dc87332fd41
Chen, X.D.
12758557-9723-4d44-9eae-8e7c599f2e18
Zhang, C.K.
55123a6d-5153-421e-90c2-0ffef5b2977f
Paterson, D.M.
2793dd09-9543-49bd-a3ac-6a34a1989234
Thompson, C.E.L.
2a304aa6-761e-4d99-b227-cedb67129bfb
Townend, I.H.
f72e5186-cae8-41fd-8712-d5746f78328e
Gong, Z.
8fec227f-4dcc-431e-85c3-13a520574886
Zhou, Z.
243ed989-77fd-46f8-b120-a4bd5aa7efbd
Feng, Q.
27489082-885d-4e6d-868e-3dc87332fd41

Chen, X.D., Zhang, C.K., Paterson, D.M., Thompson, C.E.L., Townend, I.H., Gong, Z., Zhou, Z. and Feng, Q. (2017) Hindered erosion: The biological mediation of non-cohesive sediment behaviour. Water Resources Research, 53 (6), 4787–4801. (doi:10.1002/2016WR020105).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are ubiquitous on tidal flats but their impact on sediment erosion has not been fully understood. Laboratory-controlled sediment beds were incubated with Bacillus subtilis for 5, 10, 16 and 22 days before the erosion experiments, to study the temporal and spatial variations in sediment stability caused by the bacterial secreted EPS. We found the bio-sedimentary systems showed different erosional behaviour related to biofilm maturity and EPS distribution. In the first stage (5 days), the bio-sedimentary bed was more easily eroded than the clean sediment. With increasing growth period, bound EPS became more widely distributed over the vertical profile resulting in bed stabilisation. After 22 days, the bound EPS was highly concentrated within a surface biofilm, but a relatively high content also extended to a depth of 5 mm and then decayed sharply with depth. The biofilm increased the critical shear stress of the bed and furthermore, it enabled the bed to withstand threshold conditions for an increased period of time as the biofilm degraded before eroding. After the loss of biofilm protection, the high EPS content in the sub-layers continued to stabilise the sediment (hindered erosion) by binding individual grains, as visualized by electron microscopy. Consequently, the bed strength did not immediately revert to the abiotic condition but progressively adjusted, reflecting the depth profile of the EPS. Our experiments highlight the need to treat the EPS-sediment conditioning as a bed-age associated and depth-dependent variable that should be included in the next generation of sediment transport models.

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Accepted/In Press date: 15 May 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 22 May 2017
Published date: 13 June 2017
Organisations: Ocean and Earth Science, Geology & Geophysics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 408192
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/408192
ISSN: 0043-1397
PURE UUID: dc1640da-3d7b-4479-b703-b586305cf68b
ORCID for C.E.L. Thompson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1105-6838
ORCID for I.H. Townend: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2101-3858

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Date deposited: 17 May 2017 04:01
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 05:21

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Contributors

Author: X.D. Chen
Author: C.K. Zhang
Author: D.M. Paterson
Author: C.E.L. Thompson ORCID iD
Author: I.H. Townend ORCID iD
Author: Z. Gong
Author: Z. Zhou
Author: Q. Feng

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