Title: Effects of biological activity on the entrainment of marine sediments
Abstract: The effects of animal tracks and fecal pellet production on the critical entrainment velocity of marine sediments were examined experimentally. Laboratory measurements in a free-surface, seawater flume were made using three sediment sizes. Effects of three species of polychaetes and two species of bivalves were tested. Boundary shear velocity was calculated from the mean velocity profile in the logarithmic region of the boundary layer. Measurements were made with a hot film anemometer. Tracking doubled the boundary roughness and decreased the critical entrainment velocity by 20%. Ambient or “free” sediments were more easily entrained than fecal mounds, which were restrained from movement by mucous adhesion between the fecal coils. Isolated pellets, such as those egested by Amphicteis scaphobranchiata, transported readily as bedload over a cohesive sediment surface.
Publication Year: 1981
Publication Date: 1981-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 271
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