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. 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 effic

SUBMITTER: Spencer KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8263784 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature