Suspended particle capture by synthetic vegetation in a laboratory flume

Vegetated floodplains and wetlands trap particles, a process that is important for water quality and wetland function and morphology. The rates of particle removal by vegetation remain poorly characterized, especially for small particles and vegetation coated with biofilm. In this study, we measured capture rates of road dust by arrays of grass‐like synthetic vegetation in a laboratory flume. We performed 40 experiments in which stem density, flow velocity, the presence of biofilm, and initial particle concentration varied, and used an in situ particle size analyzer to measure the concentration of a continuous particle size distribution (1.25–250 µm diameter). We fit first‐order decay models to the particle concentration measurements to determine particle capture rates and found that capture rates increased with particle size, stem density, and the presence of biofilm. Capture rates decreased with increasing flow velocity, which suggests that fast flows may resuspend particles from stems. We also calculated percent particle capture efficiencies and fit a new empirical model for capture efficiency to our results. We found that particle capture efficiency was highest for low stem density treatments and propose that stem density affects capture by altering turbulent kinetic energy. Key Points: Synthetic plant‐populated flumes remove more particles from suspension compared to bare flumes Presence of biofilm and low flow velocities increases capture rates and efficiencies Capture efficiency is a nonlinear function of stem density