Biological flocculation of suspended particles in nutrient-rich aqueous ecosystems

Summary We describe the development and testing of a mechanistic model (BFLOC) to predict the average size of sediment aggregates in nutrient-rich aqueous ecosystems. The original capability of BFLOC is to couple turbulence-induced flocculation of suspended minerals and micro-organisms with the nutrient-related dynamics of aggregate-attached micro-organisms. The model, calibrated and validated against the average floc size recorded at two stations in the Belgian North Sea [Fettweis, M., Francken, F., Pison V., Ven den Eynde, D., 2006. Suspended particulate matter dynamics and aggregate sizes in a high turbidity area. Marine Geology 235, 63–74], closely captured site conditions and significantly clarified interpretation of field measurements. Modeling results indicated that an accurate prediction of time-varying floc sizes was possible only by taking into account the organic fraction of the suspended particle matter and the micro-organism colonization of the floc micro-environment. BFLOC showed that the floc excess density strongly correlated with the floc biomass volume, while the settling velocity strongly correlated with the floc mineral volume. We noticed that the settling velocity was poorly correlated with the total floc volume (and floc size), suggesting a revision of current methods that assess suspended matter deposition uniquely on the basis of the floc size. Additionally, various hypotheses tested with BFLOC suggested that the effect of aggregate-attached biomass on aggregation and breakup rates was very small when it was accounted for with a first-order description. More generally, the sediment and biomass parameters found here were nearly site independent suggesting that the mechanistic approach of BFLOC was relatively robust.

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