Fettweis, M.

Lee, B.J.

Toorman, E. A.

Open Marine Archive

Heterogeneous flocculation combining the biological and 
mineralogical populations in a marine and coastal environment: 
literature study for a conceptual model 
Lee Byung Joon1,2, Michael Fettweis2 and Erik A. Toorman1 
1 Hydraulics Laboratory, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 40, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium 
E-mail: joon.lee@bwk.kuleuven.be  
2 Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science, Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical 
Models, Gulledelle 100, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium 
 
The biological population dynamics (e.g. algae bloom) have been concerns of biologists and 
ecologists, whereas the sediment dynamics have been interest of geologists and hydraulic 
engineers, in a marine and coastal environment. The biological and mineralogical populations seem 
separate in different fields of study. Recent studies however have found that heterogeneous 
flocculation can integrate both the seemingly separate populations for combining the biological and 
mineralogical populations in a bio-mineral floc. Therefore, the literature study was aimed to 
investigate heterogeneous flocculation, in which the biological and mineralogical populations are 
the heterogeneous fractions for building a bio-mineral floc. The following are the important findings 
from the literature study. (1) The biological population exudes sticky extracellular polymeric 
substances (EPS) and transparent exopolymeric substances (TEP) which can bind biological and 
mineralogical particles together in a bio-mineral floc (e.g. Passow, 2002). (2) The amount of EPS and 
TEP depends on the competitive microbial population dynamics between phytoplankton, 
zooplankton and bacterioplankton in a marine and coastal environment and consequently 
determines the stickiness (i.e. flocculation capability) of biological and mineralogical particles (e.g. 
Jackson and Checkly, 2011). (3) The biological population finally becomes a less-dense amorphous 
part in a floc and affects the size and morphology of bio-mineral flocs, but the mineralogical 
population provides ballasts in a floc and determines floc density and settling velocity (e.g. Droppo, 
2001; Ploug et al., 2008). In fact, the biological and mineralogical populations attach each other 
and build a bio-mineral floc with the medium of EPS and TEP, due to heterogeneous flocculation in a 
marine and coastal environment. Further, the mineralogical composition is heterogenous and may 
change according to hydrodynamic conditions and seasons. Finally the conceptual model of 
heterogeneous flocculation in this literature study will be refined and simplified for developing the 
mathematical model, based on the TCPBE model of Lee et al. (2011) 
 
 
References 
Passow U. 2002. Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) in aquatic environments. Progress in 
Oceanography 55:287-333.  
Jackson G. and D. Checkley. 2011. Particle size distributions in the upper 100m water column and 
their implications for animal feeding in the plankton. Deep-Sea Research I 58:283-297.   
Ploug H., M. Iversen and G. Fischer. 2008. Ballast, sinking velocity, and apparent diffusivity within 
marine snow and zooplankton fecal pellets: Implications for substrate turnover by attached 
bacteria. Limnol. Oveanogr. 53(5):1878-1886.  
Droppo I. 2001. Rethinking what constitutes suspended sediment. Hydrological Processes 15:1551-
1564.  
Lee B., E. Toorman, F. Molz and J. Wang. 2011. A two-class population balance equation yielding 
bimodal flocculation of marine or estuarine sediments. Water Research 45(5):2131-2145. 
 
 
 - 43 -


Heterogeneous flocculation combining the biological and mineralogical populations in a marine and coastal environment: literature study for a conceptual model

Heterogeneous flocculation combining the biological and mineralogical populations in a marine and coastal environment: literature study for a conceptual model

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Open Marine Archive