DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17249161
title: Dataset and code for the publication: "Mobility and Retention of Microplastic Fibers and Irregular Fragments in Fluvial Systems: An Experimental Flume Study"

description: Background:This dataset contains data from microplastic transport experiments conducted in an experimental flume at the University of Bayreuth. This data was analyzed in the paper by Marco La Capra, Daniel Wagner, Seema Agarwal, Jan H. Fleckenstein, and Sven Frei with the title: “Mobility and Retention of Microplastic Fibers and Irregular Fragments in Fluvial Systems: An Experimental Flume Study”, currently under review in Microplastics and Nanoplastics.

 

Description: 

This dataset contains all the processed data obtained during the experiment. This dataset does not contain the raw images from the FIS and the PIV systems. The datasets included are: 



Individual experimental data and results in the folders:



250423-fibers (Dataset for the MPFs experiment)

250506-fragments (Dataset for the IMPs experiment)

250825-fluorescein (Datasets for the fluorescein experiment)



Scripts (Contains the individual scripts used for the experiments outside of the folders with the folder logic used for the other experiments)

Comparison files (contain the results of the experiments in comparison to one another)

Experiment_book_yymmdd(metadata repository of each experiment. The file contains data used by the Python scripts)


 

Code description:

The Python scripts included in the “Script” folder are example scripts of the actual scripts used for data processing. The scripts used for each experiment, along with their modified variables, are located in the corresponding folder for each experiment. The scripts are divided into the same folder structure used for the experiments.



Scripts utilized for the data processing of the Fluorescence imaging system (1_Data-FIS):



FCS calibration: Reads the images taken for the calibration of the liquid and sedimented sections of the flume and performs the calibration of the two sections. The data is then plotted and saved as a .json file, which is used by the experimental script

Well illuminated area mask: Reads the images taken for the determination of the area of the experimental flume that is illuminated by the laser. This area is then saved in both .npy and .tif formats.

FCS experiment: Reads the calibration .json file and the metadata file to average every second of images and calculate the actual concentration from the .tiff values separated for the sediment and liquid sections. These values are then plotted within the well-illuminated area and are used to calculate the infiltration depth of each compound.



Scripts utilized for the data processing of the fluorometer data (2_Data-Fluos):



fluos filler: finds missing data in the raw datasets of the fluorometers and fills the data by interpolation

fluo data plot: Performs the calibration of the two fluorometers and plots the results from the experiments by reading the Experiment_book file



Script utilized for the data processing of the laser profiler data (3_Data-Profiler):



laserprofiler script: reads the two folders of .txt data from the laser profiler, cleans them of the 0,0,0,0 tuples and plots both the evolution of the first three dunes over time and plots the total sediment profile by reading the loc_reference .xlsx file. 



Script utilized for the data processing of the PIV data (4_Data-PIV):



PIV script: reads and opens both the total average and the Reynold stresses .dat files obtained from the PIV measurements. They are then merged to generate an overview of the whole investigated area, and the data is plotted for the section above the sediment. 



Script utilized for the data processing of the HOBOs data (5_Data_HOBOs):



HOBO plot: reads each of the .csv files obtained from each HOBO used during the experiment, applies calibration when needed and plots them over time or over the length of the flume