From Grains to Plastics: Modeling Nourishment Patterns and Hydraulic Sorting of Fluvially Transported Materials in Deltas

Understanding the way fluvially transported materials are partitioned in river deltas is essential for predicting their morphological change and the fate of environmental constituents and contaminants. Translating water-based partitioning estimates into fluxes of nonwater materials is often difficult to constrain because most materials are not uniformly distributed in the water column and may have characteristic transport pathways that differ from the mean flow. Here, we present a novel reduced-complexity modeling approach for simulating the patterns of transport of a diverse range of suspended fluvial inputs influenced by vertical stratification and topographic steering. We utilize a mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian modeling approach to estimate the patterns of nourishment and connectivity in the Wax Lake and Atchafalaya Deltas in coastal Louisiana. Using the reduced-complexity particle routing model dorado, in conjunction with a calibrated ANUGA hydrodynamic model, we quantify how transport patterns in each system change as a function of a material's Rouse number and environmental conditions. We find that even small changes to local topographic steering lead to emergent system-scale changes in patterns of fluvial nourishment, with greater channel-island connectivity for positively buoyant materials than negatively buoyant materials, hydraulically sorting different materials in space. We also find that the nourishment patterns of some materials are more sensitive than others to changes in discharge, tidal conditions, and anthropogenic dredging. Our results have important implications for understanding the eco-geomorphic evolution of deltas, and our modeling framework could have interdisciplinary implications for studying the transport of materials in other systems, including sediments, nutrients, wood, plastics, and biotic materials.

Automated summary

Understanding the partitioning of fluvially transported materials in river deltas is crucial for predicting their morphological changes and the fate of environmental constituents and contaminants. However, translating water-based partitioning estimates into fluxes of nonwater materials can be challenging due to uneven distribution and characteristic transport pathways. In this study, a novel reduced-complexity modeling approach is presented to simulate patterns of transport of suspended fluvial inputs influenced by vertical stratification and topographic steering.