Interpreting deposition patterns of microbial particles in laboratory-scale column experiments

The transport and fate of microbial particles in subsurface environments is controlled by their capture (natural filtration) by sediment grains. Typically, filtration models used to describe microbe removal in porous media predict exponential decrease in microbial particle concentration with travel distance. However, a growing body of laboratory-scale column experiments suggests that the retained microbial particle profiles decay nonexponentially. The observed behavior may be attributed to the heterogeneity in the interactions between microbial particles and sediment grains, most likely due to the inherent variability in the microbial particles. This factor can be incorporated into classical colloid filtration (deposition) theory by inclusion of a distribution in the deposition rate coefficient. We show that certain distributions of the deposition rate coefficient (i.e., log-normal, bimodal, and power-law distributions) give rise to nonexponential deposition patterns. Comparisons of model predictions to experimental data indicate that the observed nonexponential deposition behavior of bacteria and virus particles may be attributed to a broad range (i.e., a power-law distribution) of microbial deposition rates. Other mechanisms such as particle release and blocking by previously deposited microbial particles are also shown to be potential sources of deviation from the classical filtration theory. Our results further suggest that monitoring fluid-phase particle concentration is insufficient for accurate characterization of the deposition and transport behavior of microbial particles in saturated porous media. Rather, the shape of the microbial particle retention profile is shown to be a key indicator of the mechanisms controlling microbial deposition and transport.