Modeling the effect of soil meso- and macropores topology on the biodegradation of a soluble carbon substrate

Laure E. Vogel, David Makowski, Patricia Garnier, Laure Vieublé-Gonod, Yves Coquet, Xavier Raynaud, Naoise Nunan, Claire Chenu, Ruth E. Falconer, Valérie Pot

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    42 Citations (Scopus)
    200 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Soil structure and interactions between biotic and abiotic processes are increasingly recognized as important for explaining the large uncertainties in the outputs of macroscopic SOM decomposition models. We present a numerical analysis to assess the role of meso- and macropore topology on the biodegradation of a soluble carbon substrate in variably water saturated and pure diffusion conditions . Our analysis was built as a complete factorial design and used a new 3D pore-scale model, LBioS, that couples a diffusion Lattice-Boltzmann model and a compartmental biodegradation model. The scenarios combined contrasted modalities of four factors: meso- and macropore space geometry, water saturation, bacterial distribution and physiology. A global sensitivity analysis of these factors highlighted the role of physical factors in the biodegradation kinetics of our scenarios. Bacteria location explained 28% of the total variance in substrate concentration in all scenarios, while the interactions among location, saturation and geometry explained up to 51% of it.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)123-136
    Number of pages14
    JournalAdvances in Water Resources
    Volume83
    Early online date30 May 2015
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2015

    Keywords

    • Biodegradation
    • Lattice-Boltzmann method
    • Pore-scale heterogeneity
    • Spatial distribution
    • Substrate diffusion
    • Microbial habitats

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