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[1] The mobility of waterborne particulate matter plays an important role in the water quality, landscape evolution, and ecology of freshwater wetlands. In this work, we measured the surface-water transport of inorganic particles in a tracer experiment at a wetland in the Florida Everglades. Comparison of the results of this experiment to calculations of a three-dimensional transport model shows that dispersive mixing was small and that rate-limited mass-transfer reactions with emergent vegetation and periphyton substantially reduced water-column concentrations of particles. INDEX TERMS: 1871 Hydrology: Surface water quality; 1890 Hydrology: Wetlands; 1806 Hydrology: Chemistry of fresh water.

1. Introduction

[3] Despite the importance of mobile particulates to the water quality, geomorphology, and ecological functioning of wetlands, field-based observations are too scarce to permit quantitative inferences to be made regarding particle- transport characteristics within freshwater wetlands. We begin to fill this gap in knowledge by measuring the movement of particulate matter in a tracer-injection experiment conducted in the Florida Everglades. Our analysis of these data reveals how advection, dispersion, and interception by aquatic vegetation combine to influence particle mobility.