Abstract
Models for pollutant uptake by mangrove plants are developed at different scales and applied to the environmental fate of a pollutant in an estuary. Employing cohesion-tension theory, a 3-dimensional model of water and substance flow in young mangrove trees is set up in form of porous media equations. Water transport is conceived as a continuous hydraulic process driven by canopy transpiration. State variables are water potential and pollutant concentrations in the soil, roots, xylem, core and canopy. At catchment scale, the mangrove forest is conceived as a flow reactor. Up-scaled models are derived from a 3-dimensional single plant model by fitting a compartment model in form of ordinary differential equations to data obtained by spatial integration over the domains of the 3-dimensional model. These equations are imbedded as reaction terms into the shallow water equations for riverine transport. The model is applied to the dispersal of pollutants in an estuary.
Highlights
Industrial pollutants such as heavy metals and organic substances discharged into coastal areas constitute a major threat to the environment and ecosystem
We show how 3-dimensional models for single trees in form of partial differential equations can be aggregated to systems of ordinary differential equations
Multiphysics modelling is not limited to physics
Summary
Industrial pollutants such as heavy metals and organic substances discharged into coastal areas constitute a major threat to the environment and ecosystem. These processes have to be related to the landscape level This concerns the flow dynamics of pollutants in a catchment and their interaction with mangrove trees with respect to uptake and storage and toxic effects on plant growth. We present models for simulating the propagation and storage of pollutants in mangrove trees at different scales. This concerns both the application of multiphysics in biology and the upscaling approach from single trees to landscape scale. The transport of water and matter in the soil and in the plant can be described in the frame of a physical theory based on the cohesion-tension concept, whereas the control of evaporation by the canopy is a biological process involving complex biochemical mechanisms. The bulk transfer of latent heat is controlled by the stomatal conductance, which in turn depends on photosynthetic radiation, leaf temperature, vapor pressure deficit and leaf water potential
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
