Rights statement: © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Accepted author manuscript, 1.27 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Rights statement: © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Final published version, 1.27 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - A novel fluorescent tracer for real-time tracing of clay transport over soil surfaces
AU - Hardy, Robert
AU - Pates, Jacqueline Mary
AU - Quinton, John Norman
AU - Coogan, Michael Peter
N1 - © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
PY - 2016/6
Y1 - 2016/6
N2 - Clay is an important vector for the transport of pollutants in the environment, including nutrients, pesticides and metals; therefore, the fate of many chemicals in soil systems is closely linked to that of clay. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for clay transport has been hampered by the lack of a suitable tracer. Producing a tracer that accurately mimics clay transport is challenging, due to the small size of the particles and their unique physical properties. Here we describe the design and synthesis of a tracer using natural clay particles as a foundation, exploiting the natural ability of clay to sorb molecules to coat the clay with a thin layer of fluorophore. Application of the tracer has been demonstrated through the collection of real-time images of the tracer moving over the surface of a soil box during a rainfall event. These images allow, for the first time, clay to be tracked spatially and temporally without need to remove soil for analysis, thus resulting in minimal experimental artefacts. Custom written software has been used to extract high resolution data describing tracer movement and extent throughout the experiment.
AB - Clay is an important vector for the transport of pollutants in the environment, including nutrients, pesticides and metals; therefore, the fate of many chemicals in soil systems is closely linked to that of clay. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for clay transport has been hampered by the lack of a suitable tracer. Producing a tracer that accurately mimics clay transport is challenging, due to the small size of the particles and their unique physical properties. Here we describe the design and synthesis of a tracer using natural clay particles as a foundation, exploiting the natural ability of clay to sorb molecules to coat the clay with a thin layer of fluorophore. Application of the tracer has been demonstrated through the collection of real-time images of the tracer moving over the surface of a soil box during a rainfall event. These images allow, for the first time, clay to be tracked spatially and temporally without need to remove soil for analysis, thus resulting in minimal experimental artefacts. Custom written software has been used to extract high resolution data describing tracer movement and extent throughout the experiment.
KW - Clay
KW - Tracing
KW - Soil erosion
KW - Diffuse pollution
KW - Fluorescence
KW - Tracer
U2 - 10.1016/j.catena.2016.02.011
DO - 10.1016/j.catena.2016.02.011
M3 - Journal article
VL - 141
SP - 39
EP - 45
JO - CATENA
JF - CATENA
SN - 0341-8162
ER -