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EFFECTS OF PH ON ALGAL TRANSPORT WITHIN SEDIMENT**

Abstract

Zones of surface water-groundwater (SW-GW) interactions are important hotspots for biological activity, biogeochemical cycling, and nutrient transport throughout the ecosystem. These areas serve as gateways for the transport of both dissolved and particulate matter, including algae, into the subsurface from surface water environments. Understanding, modelling, and predicting the transport of microorganisms such as algae in these environments is challenging as they may aggregate, attach or resuspend within the sediments. These actions are affected by flow rate, sediment type, organism characteristics, and local environmental conditions. This makes incorporating microorganisms into hydrological models very complex. This study investigates how pH influences the subsurface transport of algae using laboratory column experiments. By performing flow-through column experiments in sandy porous media, we compared algal breakthroughs at varying pH levels 6, 7 and 8. Our preliminary results demonstrate that pH strongly affects the transport efficiency of algal groups differently. This information provides potential quantitative measurements needed for integrating algal transport into hydrological models, which could be used to understand and predict the role of groundwater in the transport of algae between visibly disconnected but hydrologically connected surface waterbodies. The models could also be used to predict potential ecological responses to environmental stressors like eutrophication or saltwater intrusion.

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