Role of streambed biofilms in the removal of biodegradable contaminants from shallow streams

Biological activity in shallow streams is dominated by biofilms which are attached to the surface of the streambed. Although biofilm kinetic models are well developed and are successfully applied to biological treatment process, they cannot be applied directly to predict water quality in shallow streams, because the area and mass-transport aspects of streambed biofilms are complicated and not defined. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to develop area and mass-transport functions for cobble-and gravel-lined streambeds. An artificial stream was used to grow biofilms and conduct kinetic experiments on the biofilm utilization of an easily degraded sugar. Media size (i.e., cobble or gravel) and flow velocity were varied over a wide range of values typical to shallow streams. Water velocity had short-term and long-term effects on the rate of contaminant removal. The short-term effects were related to increased mass-transport kinetics for higher flow velocities, while the long-term effects also included increased surface colonization by biofilm. The cobble streambed was more sensitive to short-term changes in water velocity than was the gravel bed, and it gave faster removal kinetics. Equations to predict the mass transfer coefficients were appropriate for more than one biofilm community, as long as the same medium size was used. The simulations from the water quality models containing the biofilm reaction term were markedly different from the simulations from traditional water-quality models that use only suspended organism kinetics.U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological SurveyOpe