A structure–function based approach to floc hierarchy and evidence for the non-fractal nature of natural sediment flocs
Abstract Natural sediment flocs are fragile, highly irregular, loosely bound aggregates comprising minerogenic and organic material. They contribute a major component of suspended sediment load and are critical for the fate and flux of sediment, carbon and pollutants in aquatic environments. Underst...
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Nature Portfolio
2021
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oai:doaj.org-article:00e68750f3a842ea92c81d43d8c363572021-12-02T18:34:20ZA structure–function based approach to floc hierarchy and evidence for the non-fractal nature of natural sediment flocs10.1038/s41598-021-93302-92045-2322https://doaj.org/article/00e68750f3a842ea92c81d43d8c363572021-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93302-9https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Natural sediment flocs are fragile, highly irregular, loosely bound aggregates comprising minerogenic and organic material. They contribute a major component of suspended sediment load and are critical for the fate and flux of sediment, carbon and pollutants in aquatic environments. Understanding their behaviour is essential to the sustainable management of waterways, fisheries and marine industries. For several decades, modelling approaches have utilised fractal mathematics and observations of two dimensional (2D) floc size distributions to infer levels of aggregation and predict their behaviour. Whilst this is a computationally simple solution, it is highly unlikely to reflect the complexity of natural sediment flocs and current models predicting fine sediment hydrodynamics are not efficient. Here, we show how new observations of fragile floc structures in three dimensions (3D) demonstrate unequivocally that natural flocs are non-fractal. We propose that floc hierarchy is based on observations of 3D structure and function rather than 2D size distribution. In contrast to fractal theory, our data indicate that flocs possess characteristics of emergent systems including non-linearity and scale-dependent feedbacks. These concepts and new data to quantify floc structures offer the opportunity to explore new emergence-based floc frameworks which better represent natural floc behaviour and could advance our predictive capacity.Kate L. SpencerJonathan A. T. WheatlandAndrew J. BushbySimon J. CarrIan G. DroppoAndrew J. ManningNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2021) |
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DOAJ |
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EN |
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Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Kate L. Spencer Jonathan A. T. Wheatland Andrew J. Bushby Simon J. Carr Ian G. Droppo Andrew J. Manning A structure–function based approach to floc hierarchy and evidence for the non-fractal nature of natural sediment flocs |
| description |
Abstract Natural sediment flocs are fragile, highly irregular, loosely bound aggregates comprising minerogenic and organic material. They contribute a major component of suspended sediment load and are critical for the fate and flux of sediment, carbon and pollutants in aquatic environments. Understanding their behaviour is essential to the sustainable management of waterways, fisheries and marine industries. For several decades, modelling approaches have utilised fractal mathematics and observations of two dimensional (2D) floc size distributions to infer levels of aggregation and predict their behaviour. Whilst this is a computationally simple solution, it is highly unlikely to reflect the complexity of natural sediment flocs and current models predicting fine sediment hydrodynamics are not efficient. Here, we show how new observations of fragile floc structures in three dimensions (3D) demonstrate unequivocally that natural flocs are non-fractal. We propose that floc hierarchy is based on observations of 3D structure and function rather than 2D size distribution. In contrast to fractal theory, our data indicate that flocs possess characteristics of emergent systems including non-linearity and scale-dependent feedbacks. These concepts and new data to quantify floc structures offer the opportunity to explore new emergence-based floc frameworks which better represent natural floc behaviour and could advance our predictive capacity. |
| format |
article |
| author |
Kate L. Spencer Jonathan A. T. Wheatland Andrew J. Bushby Simon J. Carr Ian G. Droppo Andrew J. Manning |
| author_facet |
Kate L. Spencer Jonathan A. T. Wheatland Andrew J. Bushby Simon J. Carr Ian G. Droppo Andrew J. Manning |
| author_sort |
Kate L. Spencer |
| title |
A structure–function based approach to floc hierarchy and evidence for the non-fractal nature of natural sediment flocs |
| title_short |
A structure–function based approach to floc hierarchy and evidence for the non-fractal nature of natural sediment flocs |
| title_full |
A structure–function based approach to floc hierarchy and evidence for the non-fractal nature of natural sediment flocs |
| title_fullStr |
A structure–function based approach to floc hierarchy and evidence for the non-fractal nature of natural sediment flocs |
| title_full_unstemmed |
A structure–function based approach to floc hierarchy and evidence for the non-fractal nature of natural sediment flocs |
| title_sort |
structure–function based approach to floc hierarchy and evidence for the non-fractal nature of natural sediment flocs |
| publisher |
Nature Portfolio |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| url |
https://doaj.org/article/00e68750f3a842ea92c81d43d8c36357 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
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