Speaker
Description
The vadose zone plays a pivotal role in modulating subsurface ecological processes, biogeochemical cycles, contaminant transport, critical element retention, and agricultural productivity. However, elucidating solute transport through its inherently complex and heterogeneous architecture remains a fundamental challenge in hydrogeology and soil science. This study presents soil-embedded microfluidics—a new experimental platform that allows direct visualization and quantitative analysis of solute transport within natural soil matrices under precisely controlled flow and initial saturation conditions. By incorporating authentic soil structures into microfluidic designs, this approach uniquely captures the interplay between saturation-dependent flow regimes and intrinsic soil heterogeneity, including fracture networks, in driving preferential pathways and non-equilibrium transport dynamics. Our findings reveal that reduced water saturation exacerbates preferential flow, while structural heterogeneities significantly redirect solute trajectories and accelerate transport velocities. Time-scale analysis further indicates enhanced dispersive transport under increased saturation conditions. High-resolution imaging unveils localized solute entrapment at fracture interfaces, highlighting the control of micro-scale features on macro-scale transport patterns. This newly developed methodology offers new insights into soil solute dynamics, with profound implications for predicting contaminant fate, enhancing remediation strategies, advancing precision agriculture, and managing critical element cycles in the vadose zone.
| Country | China |
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