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 language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 123-136 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Advances in Water Resources |
Volume | 83 |
Early online date | 30 May 2015 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2015 |
Keywords
- Biodegradation
- Lattice-Boltzmann method
- Pore-scale heterogeneity
- Spatial distribution
- Substrate diffusion
- Microbial habitats