Characteristics of nutrient release from sediments under different flow conditions

Abstract Contaminated sediments, as a secondary pollution source in rivers and lakes, are of critical importance to water quality. More and more attention thus has been paid to understand the release mechanisms of nutrients from river sediments, especially in estuary and water transfer areas. In this work, flume experiments were conducted to measure the release characteristics of total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) and nitrogen (TDN) from sediments collected from a river bed near Lake Tai under various flow conditions. The release of TDP and TDN was the most dramatic in the initial 30 min, then slowed down from 30 to 60 min, and finally achieved equilibria. Total amount of TDP and TDN released and their equilibrium concentrations were all significantly increased with the increase of flow rate, but slow down after a critical velocity was reached, which could be described as a Logarithmic relationship. A process-based mathematical model was established to describe the distribution of nutrients in the water columns and model simulations matched experimental data well. The re-suspension of sediments induced by flow rate higher than the threshold, is the dominant process affecting nutrient release from sediments.