Abstract/Description/Artist Statement

Particle settling velocity serves as an essential component in ocean biological pump, as it determines particle retention time in the water column. Stokes’ law has been widely used to predict particle settling velocities by particle size and excess density in aquatic environments. However, an increasing number of studies suggest that Stokes’ law fits poorly in the size-velocity relationship of observations on small oceanic particles. Here, we present a series of novel approaches to investigate the relative contribution of settling velocities by the particle shape and optical densities using machine learning (ML) models and principal component analysis (PCA), based on 3906 measurements derived from an in-situ sediment trap camera deployed in Bermuda. We observe a substantial increase on R2 score compared to simple linear regression by implementing ML models, while the morphological features only explain no more than 50% of the variance.

Presenting Author Name/s

Huanqing Huang

Faculty Advisor/Mentor

Alexander Bochdansky

Faculty Advisor/Mentor Email

ABochdan@odu.edu

Faculty Advisor/Mentor Department

Department of Ocean and Earth Sciences

College/School Affiliation

College of Sciences

Student Level Group

Graduate/Professional

Presentation Type

Poster

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How Much Does Shape Matter: Investigating the Impact of Marine Particle Morphological Features on in-situ Settling Velocities Using PCA and Various ML Models

Particle settling velocity serves as an essential component in ocean biological pump, as it determines particle retention time in the water column. Stokes’ law has been widely used to predict particle settling velocities by particle size and excess density in aquatic environments. However, an increasing number of studies suggest that Stokes’ law fits poorly in the size-velocity relationship of observations on small oceanic particles. Here, we present a series of novel approaches to investigate the relative contribution of settling velocities by the particle shape and optical densities using machine learning (ML) models and principal component analysis (PCA), based on 3906 measurements derived from an in-situ sediment trap camera deployed in Bermuda. We observe a substantial increase on R2 score compared to simple linear regression by implementing ML models, while the morphological features only explain no more than 50% of the variance.