Papers

20 results
|
Article Tier 2

The effects of stream water velocity, streambed celerity, and particle properties on microplastic deposition in streams

Researchers conducted laboratory flume experiments to examine how stream water velocity, bedform movement, and microplastic particle properties (material type PET/PP/PA and fiber length 25-200 µm) influence the deposition dynamics of microplastics in sandy streambeds, finding that bedform movement and particle characteristics significantly affected deposition rates and sediment distribution patterns.

2022
Article Tier 2

The effects of streambed movement and particle size on microplastic deposition

Researchers conducted flume experiments using polypropylene fibers and polystyrene microspheres in sandy streambeds to examine how streambed motion and particle size influence microplastic deposition, finding that both factors significantly affect burial rates in riverine systems.

2024
Article Tier 2

Understanding how sediment movement affects microplastic deposition in sandy streambeds: A modeling study.

Researchers used a numerical model of flow and particle transport in moving streambed sediment to quantify how streambed motion affects microplastic deposition and accumulation, running simulations across streamwater velocities of 0.1-0.5 m/s and varying median grain sizes to examine MPs of all sizes and densities.

2024
Article Tier 2

Exploring the influence of sediment motion on microplastic deposition in streambeds

This study systematically explored how sediment motion affects microplastic deposition in streambeds made of fine sediments, finding that sediment transport dynamics play a critical role in controlling where microplastics accumulate. The results improve understanding of microplastic fate in riverine systems.

2023 Water Research 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Modeling microplastic deposition in sandy streams with moving bedforms

Researchers developed a coupled model combining improved mechanistic colloid attachment predictions with a bedform transport model to quantify microplastic deposition in sandy streams with moving dune bedforms, running numerical simulations to assess how streambed characteristics, flow conditions, and particle properties interact to control microplastic retention. The model addressed the poor predictive power of classical colloid filtration theory for microplastics by incorporating bedform dynamics into deposition calculations.

2022 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic infiltration into mobile sediments

Researchers used an annular flume to simulate how microplastic particles infiltrate into sandy river sediments as bedforms migrate. They found that particle size was the most important factor determining how deep microplastics penetrated into the sediment, while bedform speed and particle density had less influence. The study reveals that smaller microplastics can be buried deeper in river sediments, making them harder to detect and potentially creating long-term contamination reservoirs.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Studying the effect of moving sandy bedforms on the infiltration behavior of microplastic particles

This laboratory study investigated how microplastic particles move through sandy riverbeds when the sediment itself is in motion. Results showed that natural sand movement significantly affects where microplastics end up, which has important implications for understanding how plastics accumulate in freshwater ecosystems.

2023
Article Tier 2

Bedforms effect on microplastics deposits erosion

Researchers conducted flume experiments to study how a sand bedform influences the erosion of compact polyamide microplastic deposits, finding that a sudden increase in flow rate forced erosion of microplastics accumulated at the lee side of a dune, shedding light on water-bed interface dynamics relevant to river ecology.

2024
Article Tier 2

Sand bed river dynamics controlling microplastic flux

Researchers used controlled flume experiments to show that sand bed rivers can retain up to 40% of their microplastic load within the sediment, making them significant sinks for plastic pollution. They found that bedform dynamics, particularly the speed at which sand dunes move, can predict microplastic flux through the system. The study also revealed that microplastic shape plays a more important role than previously recognized in determining whether particles are trapped or transported downstream.

2024 Scientific Reports 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic trapping in sandy bedload: insights from flume experiments

Researchers conducted flume experiments to investigate the mechanisms controlling microplastic trapping in sandy bedload sediments, examining how particles of different sizes and densities become buried within ripple structures formed by unidirectional tractional flows. The study provided insights into riverine microplastic sedimentation dynamics relevant to understanding transient storage during land-to-ocean transport.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Leveraging Sedimentary Process Insights to Enhance Understanding of Microplastic Deposition in Rivers

This review leverages insights from fluvial sediment transport research to improve understanding of how microplastics deposit and are buried in river networks, identifying knowledge gaps in water-sediment exchange processes and highlighting that current MP deposition estimates are biased by incomplete understanding of flow-sediment-particle interactions.

2025
Article Tier 2

How hyporheic pumping and bedform migration redistribute microplastic burial in sand-bed rivers

Scientists studied how tiny plastic particles (microplastics) get trapped in riverbeds and found that moving sand dunes don't just increase or decrease plastic burial—they actually shift where the plastics end up stored. The research shows that plastic particles can get buried in shallow or deeper layers of river sediment depending on how the sand moves, which affects how long these pollutants stay in the environment. This matters because understanding where microplastics accumulate in rivers helps us better predict their impact on water quality and the health of ecosystems that people depend on.

2026
Article Tier 2

Resolving the dynamics of microplastic transport and burial in rivers requires the incorporation of fluvial sedimentary processes

This review examines how fluvial sedimentary processes govern microplastic transport and burial in river networks, summarizing research on shear stress controls of MP deposition onto surficial sediment, water-sediment exchange dynamics, and the time scales over which MPs are buried and remobilized.

2024
Article Tier 2

Microplastic trapping in sandy bedload: insights from flume experiments

Researchers conducted flume experiments using a 4-metre channel to investigate how microplastic particles become trapped within sandy bedload ripples formed by unidirectional water flows, examining interactions between microplastics and inorganic sediment particles under controlled depositional conditions. The findings provide mechanistic insights into how microplastics are temporarily stored in riverine sediments during their transfer from land to ocean.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Modelling the Fate of Microplastics in river bed sediments.

Researchers modeled microplastic transport, deposition, and burial in river bed sediments under varying hydrological conditions. River bed sediments were found to act as long-term reservoirs for microplastics, with periodic high-flow events temporarily resuspending and redistributing particles.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Microplastic and natural sediment in bed load saltation: Material does not dictate the fate

Researchers investigated how microplastics move as bed load in river flows and found that transport behavior in saltation was governed primarily by particle size, shape, and density rather than material composition, suggesting that microplastics follow similar transport mechanics as natural sediment.

2023 Water Research 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Flume experiments on transport and deposition behavior of microplastics in sediment bed environments

Researchers ran 42 flume experiments with three model sediments and spherical microplastics of varying size and density, finding that deposition depth is governed by sediment porosity and the grain-to-particle diameter ratio, while transport is primarily controlled by particle density and initial placement, providing data to improve MP mass balance models.

2026 The Science of The Total Environment
Article Tier 2

Sediment-Water Interfaces as Traps and Sources of Microplastic Fragments and Microfibers─Insights from Stream Flume Experiments

Researchers used controlled stream flume experiments to study how microplastic fibers and fragments settle into riverbed sediments. They found that lower water flow speeds caused faster deposition, with the effect being strongest for fibers, and that traditional settling equations significantly underestimate how microplastics actually behave near the streambed. The findings improve our understanding of where and how microplastics accumulate in rivers.

2025 ACS ES&T Water 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Transport dynamics of microplastics from land to sea: the role of particle properties and stream morphology.

Researchers measured how particle properties including size, density, and polymer type interact with stream morphology to determine microplastic transport distances in 15 streams. Both plastic characteristics and stream structure independently influenced how far microplastics travel before settling, with implications for estimating fluxes to the ocean.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Storm Response of Fluvial Sedimentary Microplastics

Researchers investigated how storm events affect microplastic concentrations in river sediments, finding that flood conditions remobilize stored particles and significantly increase microplastic loads in fluvial systems. The study identified key physical controls on microplastic storage and transport in river channels.

2020 Scientific Reports 129 citations