Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Microplastic deposition in streams under moving bedforms

Researchers conducted flume experiments to examine microplastic deposition in sandy streambeds under moving bedform conditions, finding that bedform migration and particle size both control whether microplastics are buried or remain in suspension, with implications for estimating MP residence times in river systems.

2025
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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Plastic pollution in riverbeds fundamentally affects natural sand transport processes

Researchers used laboratory flume experiments to show that plastic particles mixed into sandy riverbeds — even at low concentrations — disrupt the normal formation of ripples and dunes, causing irregular erosion patterns and pushing more sand into suspension in the water column. This means plastic pollution is not a passive bystander in river systems but actively alters the physical processes that shape river channels and transport sediment downstream.

2023 Communications Earth & Environment 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Transport of microplastics driven by turbidity currents developing over bedforms

Researchers examined microplastic transport by turbidity currents developing over seafloor bedforms, investigating how bedform morphology influences the capacity of these submarine sediment flows to suspend and carry microplastics from coastal zones to deep-ocean depositional environments.

2025
Article Tier 2

Hydro-geomorphological features govern the distribution, storage, and transport processes of riverbed microplastics

This study examined how river channel shape, water flow, and sediment dynamics control where microplastics accumulate, travel, and are stored in riverbeds. Identifying these hydro-geomorphological drivers is important for predicting microplastic transport to downstream ecosystems and the ocean.

2026 Mendeley Data
Article Tier 2

Hydro-geomorphological features govern the distribution, storage, and transport processes of riverbed microplastics

This study examined how river channel shape, water flow, and sediment dynamics control where microplastics accumulate, travel, and are stored in riverbeds. Identifying these hydro-geomorphological drivers is important for predicting microplastic transport to downstream ecosystems and the ocean.

2026 Mendeley Data
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
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

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

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

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

Impact of Bed Form Celerity on Oxygen Dynamics in the Hyporheic Zone

Experiments in a laboratory flume showed that moving sediment forms (ripples and dunes) significantly affect how much oxygen reaches the riverbed sediments and how quickly it is consumed. Understanding oxygen dynamics in riverbeds is relevant to how microplastic pollution affects the microbial communities that drive water quality.

2019 Water 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics on sedimentary geochemical properties and microbial ecosystems combined with hydraulic disturbance

Researchers investigated how microplastics interact with river sediments under flowing water conditions versus still water. They found that water movement significantly amplified the effects of microplastics on sediment structure, organic matter, and enzyme activity compared to static conditions. The study reveals that the environmental impact of microplastics in rivers is more complex and potentially greater than laboratory experiments under calm conditions would suggest.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 23 citations
Article Tier 2

The role of pumping and turnover in controlling microplastics entrapment and release in sand-bed rivers

Researchers developed a mathematical framework to model how microplastics are trapped and released in sand-bed rivers through the combined effects of water flow and dune migration. The study found that dune movement substantially alters how microplastics are transported and buried in river sediments, with a nonlinear interplay between shallow rapid exchange and deep burial that depends on dune size and flow conditions.

2026 The Science of The Total Environment
Article Tier 2

Study of the influence of fluvial dynamics on the distribution and transport of microplastics.

Researchers studied how fluvial dynamics, including water flow, turbulence, and river morphology, influence microplastic distribution and transport in a river system. The study found that hydrological conditions strongly control where microplastics deposit and how they move through the watershed.

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

Investigating Microplastic Resuspension in Environmental flows: Experimental and Numerical Approaches

Researchers used combined experimental and numerical approaches to investigate the resuspension of microplastics from sediment beds in riverine flows, finding that turbulence intensity during high-flow events plays a key role in detaching MP particles embedded in multi-density granular sediment beds.

2025
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

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