Modeling biogeochemical dynamics in porous media: Practical considerations of pore scale variability, reaction networks, and microbial population dynamics in a sandy aquifer

Date

2010-03-01

Author

King, E. L.
Tuncay, Kağan
Ortoleva, P.
Meile, C.

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

230
views

0
downloads

Prediction of the fate and environmental impacts of groundwater contaminants requires the identification of relevant biogeochemical processes and necessitates the macroscopic representation of microbial activity occurring at the microscale. Using a well-studied sandy aquifer environment, we evaluate the importance of pore distribution on organic matter respiration in a porous medium environment by performing spatially explicit simulations of microbial metabolism at the sub-millimeter scale. Model results using an idealized porous medium under non-biofilm forming conditions indicate that while some heterogeneity is observed for flow rates, distributions of microbes and dissolved organic substrates remain relatively homogenous at the grain scale. At the macroscale in the same environment, we assess the impact of a comprehensive reaction network description for a phenolic contaminant plume, and compare the findings to a setting describing organic matter breakdown in a coastal marine sediment. This comparison reveals the importance of reactions recycling reduced metabolites at redox interfaces, leading to a competition for oxidants. When the spatio-temporal dynamics of microbial groups are accounted for, our simulations show the importance of reaction energetics and nutrient limitations such as microbial nitrogen demands.

Subject Keywords

Water Science and Technology, Environmental Chemistry

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/47820

Journal

JOURNAL OF CONTAMINANT HYDROLOGY

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2009.12.002

Collections

Department of Civil Engineering, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Modeling biogeochemical processes in subterranean estuaries: Effect of flow dynamics and redox conditions on submarine groundwater discharge of nutrients Spiteri, Claudette; Slomp, Caroline P.; Tuncay, Kağan; Meile, Christof (American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2008-02-22) [1] A two-dimensional density-dependent reactive transport model, which couples groundwater flow and biogeochemical reactions, is used to investigate the fate of nutrients (NO(3)(-), NH(4)(+), and PO(4)) in idealized subterranean estuaries representing four end-members of oxic/anoxic aquifer and seawater redox conditions. Results from the simplified model representations show that the prevalent flow characteristics and redox conditions in the freshwater-seawater mixing zone determine the extent of nutrient ...
Assessment of seawater intrusion in a coastal aquifer by using correlation, principal component, and factor analyses Karahanoğlu, Nurkan (Wiley, 1997-05-01) Hydrogeochemical characterization of the Erzin Plain coastal aquifer has been accomplished in this research to investigate the spatial and transient behavior of its water quality. The aquifer is located along the Mediterranean coast and forms one of the most productive aquifers in Turkey. Chemical analyses of groundwater samples collected from the aquifer during 1964-1968 (128 samples), May 1993 (30 samples), October 1993 (37 samples), and June 1994 (20 samples) constitute the available groundwater quality ...
Predicting Diel, Diurnal and Nocturnal Dynamics of Dissolved Oxygen and Chlorophyll-a Using Regression Models and Neural Networks KARAKAYA, NUSRET; EVRENDİLEK, FATİH; GÜNGÖR, KEREM; Onal, Deniz (Wiley, 2013-09-01) Human-induced and natural interruptions with continuous streams of observational data necessitate the development of gap-filling and prediction strategies towards better understanding, monitoring and management of aquatic systems. This study quantified the efficacy of multiple non-linear regression (MNLR) versus artificial neural network (ANN) models as well as the temporal partitioning of diurnal versus nocturnal data for the predictions of chlorophyll-a (chl-a) and dissolved oxygen (DO) dynamics. The temp...
ORGANIC-CARBON DISTRIBUTION IN THE SURFACE SEDIMENTS OF THE SEA-OF-MARMARA AND ITS CONTROL BY THE INFLOWS FROM ADJACENT WATER MASSES ERGIN, M; BODUR, MN; EDIGER, D; EDIGER, V; YILMAZ, A (Elsevier BV, 1993-02-01) The organic carbon contents and textural composition of a total of 166 surficial sediment samples (from 10 to 1226 m water depths) together with data on primary productivity rates and dissolved oxygen concentrations have been studied to investigate the main controls on the distribution of organic carbon buried within the modern sediments across the Sea of Marmara.
A SCREENING MODEL FOR EFFECTS OF LAND-DISPOSED WASTES ON GROUNDWATER QUALITY Ünlü, Kahraman; PARKER, JC; STEVENS, D; CHONG, PK; KAMIL, I (Elsevier BV, 1992-10-01) This paper describes a screening model for evaluating the migration of organic and inorganic contaminants leached from land-disposed wastes. The model is composed of a waste-zone release submodel, an unsaturated-zone transport submodel and a saturated-zone transport submodel. The waste-zone submodel assumes steady one-dimensional vertical flow through a uniform waste zone treated as a "stirred tank reactor". Soluble inorganic contaminants are assumed to exhibit a constant concentration in the leachate until...

Citation Formats

E. L. King, K. Tuncay, P. Ortoleva, and C. Meile, “Modeling biogeochemical dynamics in porous media: Practical considerations of pore scale variability, reaction networks, and microbial population dynamics in a sandy aquifer,” JOURNAL OF CONTAMINANT HYDROLOGY, pp. 130–140, 2010, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/47820.