How does fish spawning affect fluvial sediment transport?
Fish spawning activities are known to move a large amount of sediment in natural systems. While spawning is known to dilate the bed at the surface, potentially leading to a lower stress needed to move sediment, what happens at depth? Undergraduate Yisheng (Ethan) Zhong and postdoc David Cúñez are using CFDEM modeling and small-scale physical experiments to see how fish spawning influences the granular properties of riverbeds.