Bed form-induced hyporheic exchange and geochemical hotspots

Abstract

Small-scale bed form topographies control hyporheic exchange and biogeochemical processes within aquatic sediments, which ultimately affect water quality and nutrient cycling at the watershed scale. The impact of three-dimensional (3D) and small-scale bed form topographies on hyporheic exchange and solute mixing is investigated in the present work. The effect of bed form morphologies on the development of zones of enhanced reaction rates (i.e., hot spots) is also studied. A computational fluid dynamics model to simulate river flow over bed forms is combined with a subsurface flow and multicomponent reactive solute transport model. A wide variety of bed form topographies are generated using geometric models by varying parameters controlling curvature as well as bed form wavelength and amplitude. Our results show that the pressure distribution at the sediment-water interface is strongly affected by the bed form geometry. Higher phase shifts in bed form shapes result in overall higher average velocity, larger zones of enhanced pressure and reaction rates, and higher amounts of solute exchange. Moreover, the bed form shapes control the reaction process for a wide range of sediment conductivities. This study advances the understanding of the effects of complex and small scale morphological features on hyporheic exchange processes.