Some photos of the sampling sites located in the Brecon Beacons over the last two years of monitoring

Many thanks to my co-authors:
Prof. Catherine Wilson (Cardiff University)
Dr. Pablo Ouro(University of Manchester)
@naturecomms.bsky.social
@cardiffuni.bsky.social

Overall, these complex dynamics caused a REDUCTION in settling velocities for plates with #biofilms by up to 12% - despite biofouled plastics being denser.

These results are critical, showing that dynamics and biofilms play an important role in overall plastic transport 🌊➡️🥤

We believe these differences are caused by a slight shift in the plastic's centre of gravity due to the heterogenous growth of #biofilms

This cause the #biofouled plastics to transition from a symmetrical oscillation settling pattern to an asymmetrical one.

We show that particles with #biofilms moved further away (laterally) from their drop position, compared to their pristine equivalent

This also triggered higher oscillatory frequencies, larger amplitudes and greater Strouhal numbers

We show that #biofouling triggered plastic to exhibit more chaotic and random settling behaviours

See below in green below for a biofouled plastic plate compared to the pristine plastics in blue

Next, we track the settling of plastics in water using a 3D synchronised multi-camera set up.

This allows us to gain a full characterisation of the different settling modes and the behaviour of the settling #biofouled and #pristine plastics

First, we leave plastics in river water for 4 months to grow sticky #biofilms.

We identify the #biofilm colonisation on the surface of plastics plates using a crystal violet dye.

We then characterise the the changes in plastic density, surface roughness and hydrophilicity

Hey! This is great! Could i added as well ?