Neelarun Mukherjee

Neelarun Mukherjee

Ph.D. Candidate @UT Austin

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Cold-regions Hydro-biogeochemical Processes

The Arctic is warming almost four times faster than the rest of the world, in the process thawing large stores of permafrost soil carbon. The thawing amplifies climate change if the carbon is released to the atmosphere as greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. The conversion of soil carbon to greenhouse gases occurs in watersheds, and is largely controlled by how water flows through the soils from the hillslopes to valley-bottoms and into streams. The hydrologic processes within watersheds are shifting in response to dramatic changes in extreme weather events like heat waves, flooding and storms, and more frequent tundra wildfires, along with a shorter cold season and longer summer thaw season. However, scientists do not know how the concurrent thawing of permafrost soils and changes in watershed hydrology will affect greenhouse gas emissions. There is a clear need to improve models of cold-region watershed hydrology in order to predict how warming and permafrost thaw now will affect greenhouse gas releases in the future. This research will use state-of-the-art mathematical models of watershed hydrology, and advance them to provide the first integration of highly-dynamic water flow over the landscape, through soils, and to rivers with key biological and chemical processes that control greenhouse gas generation and transport. Realistic coupling of the hydrology, biology, and chemistry in these models will be validated by key measurements in the field. Based on current understanding, our expectations are that (1) hydrological flow patterns from hillslopes through valley bottoms control the landscape export of carbon from soils to rivers and the relative production of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide versus methane); (2) variability in extreme events, freeze-thaw cycles, and day-to-day weather will alter the magnitudes of biological and chemical reactions through the hillslope to valley-bottom and then to the river; and, (3) watershed-scale carbon exports are controlled by valley-bottom processes, but hillslope and stream processes can dominate as climate change alters weather patterns and hydrology. We will test these ideas under scenarios of shifting cold- and warm-season climate, by adding novel physics and chemistry to two coupled DOE models, the Arctic Terrestrial Simulator (ATS) and a chemical reactions and transport model (PFLOTRAN).

Funding Agency:

Department of Energy, Biological and Environmental Research (BER), Environmental System Science Program (ESS)

Team:

M. Bayani Cardenas, University of Texas at Austin (Principal Investigator)

Bethany T. Neilson, Utah State University (Co-Investigator)

Pin Shuai, (Co-Investigator)

Rose M. Cory, University of Michigan (Co-Investigator)

George W. Kling, University of Michigan (Co-Investigator)

Ethan T. Coon, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Co-Investigator)

Neelarun Mukherjee, University of Texas at Austin (Graduate Student)

Devon Hill, Utah State University (Graduate Student)

Duration:

2023-2026

Total funding:

$1M

External Link

publications

Groundwater Dominates Fluxes of Water and Organic Carbon in a Permafrost Watershed Across Hydrologic States

Published in Journal of Hydrogeology (under review), 2024

Abstract: Supra-permafrost aquifers within the active layer are present in the Arctic during summer. Permafrost thawing due to Arctic warming can liberate previously frozen particulate organic matter (POM) in soils to leach into groundwater as dissolved organic carbon (DOC). DOC transport from groundwater to surface water is poorly understood because of the unquantified variability in subsurface properties and hydrological environments. These dynamics must be better characterized because DOC transport to surface waters is critical to predicting the long-term fate of recently thawed carbon in permafrost environments. Here, we quantified groundwater and DOC fluxes based on Darcy’s Law into Imnavait Creek, Alaska, a representative headwater stream of a continuous permafrost watershed. We developed a statistical ensemble approach to model steady-state groundwater flow. We quantified the model prediction uncertainty using statistical sampling of in situ active layer soil hydro-stratigraphy, high-resolution topography data, and DOC data. The predicted groundwater discharge values representing all possible hydrologic conditions towards the end of the thawing season are similar to and span the observed range of Imnavait Creek streamflow. As the Arctic warms and the supra-permafrost aquifer deepens, groundwater flow is expected to increase. This increase is expected to impact river and lake biogeochemical processes by dissolving and mobilizing more soil constituents in continuous permafrost regions. This study highlights how quantifying the uncertainty of hydro-stratigraphical input parameters helps understand and predict supra-permafrost aquifer dynamics and connectivity to aquatic systems using a simple, but scalable, modeling approach.

Recommended citation: (Under Review) Mukherjee, Neelarun and Chen, Jingyi and Neilson, Bethany T. and Kling, George W. and Cardenas, M. Bayani, Groundwater Dominates Fluxes of Water and Organic Carbon in a Permafrost Watershed Across Hydrologic States. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4783339 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4783339 --

Three-dimensional Simulations of Two-phase Plug Flow in a Microfluidic Channel

Published in Physics of Fluids, 2024

Abstract: A fundamental understanding of two-phase flow behavior in microfluidics is crucial for various technological applications across different disciplines, including energy, chemical, and material engineering, as well as biomedical, environmental, and pharmaceutical sciences. In this work, we elucidate the flow fields of low Capillary number [Ca] segmented Taylor flows of immiscible CO2 emulsions/bubbles transported by water in a low aspect ratio microchannel. We conducted high-resolution two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) numerical simulations using an improved volume-of-fluid two-phase flow solver and validated their accuracy against experimental data. Our results show that 3D simulations are necessary to accurately capture the dynamics of liquid and supercritical CO2 emulsions produced at relatively higher Ca. The 3D simulation results also reveal diverse patterns of spanwise vortices, which are overlooked in 2D simulations. Calculating the Q-criterion in 3D revealed that vortices with relatively higher vorticity magnitudes are adjacent to the sidewalls, with the strongest ones emerging across the microchannel in the third dimension. More specifically, gaseous CO2 bubbles display relatively intense vortex patterns near the interfacial region of the bubble body and the cap due to the influence of the surrounding thin liquid film and slug flow. At higher Ca, liquid and supercritical CO2 emulsions exhibit similar flow dynamics, however, with prominent vortex patterns occurring in the upstream cap region. These findings pinpoint specific areas within the emulsions/bubbles that require attention to enhance stabilization or exchanging mechanisms for low-Ca Taylor flow of emulsions/bubbles.

Recommended citation: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0220101

talks

Gravitational Instability and Convection in a Granular Porous Medium: Pore Scale Experimental Study and Implications for Solubility Trapping Of CO2

Published:

Abstract:

Geological sequestration of CO2 is considered as one of the few efficient ways to mitigate the increased global warming scenario. Solubility trapping stands as one of the key trapping mechanisms in CO2 sequestration. It dictates the typical timescale for safely storing CO2 in deep aquifers. A less dense layer of supercritical CO2 collects over a denser brine solution on CO2 injection under the cap rock. As CO2 mixes with brine, it incidentally forms a mixture heavier than pure brine, thus triggering a gravitational instability. Solubility trapping efficiency can be estimated by how fast this heavy layer is removed by the convective instability, thereby fuelling subsequent dissolution of CO2 into brine. Solubility trapping results in irreversible storage of CO2 at the bottom of the aquifer where dissolved CO2 is eventually converted into carbonate minerals through chemical trapping. Although most experimental studies of this phenomenon have been carried out in Hele-Shaw setups, as analogues to two dimensional (2D) porous media, few existing 3D numerical simulations indicate that its convection structure may be different from its 2D counterpart. Further, the effect of pore scale detail on the instability and subsequent convection is still unknown. To unravel these aspects, we have developed a laboratory scale experiment based on refractive index matching (RIM) of the liquid to the granular solid matrix. The setup does not currently involve continuous dissolution of CO2 at the top boundary but uses an analogue solute instead. It thus aims to unravel the miscible Rayleigh-Taylor instability dynamics in presence of a granular medium, and how it is differs from the dynamics predicted by Darcy-scale models. We focus on the onset time, non-linear time, mixing time, plume amplitude and plume speeds for the instability. The granular medium, with grains of diameter 3 mm, has dimensions 45x45x1 cm3. The 2D visualization in based on a solute dye that differentiates between the heavier (top) and lighter (bottom) fluid. The 3D visualization relies on a horizontal laser sheet that scans across the setup and triggers fluorescence in the lighter fluid whereas the heavier fluid is RIM to the solid grains. Upscaling the results from these experimental measurements provides insights into the trapping efficiency in geological porous media.

Characterizing Rayleigh Taylor Instability and Convection in a Porous Medium with Geoelectric Monitoring

Published:

Abstract:

The use of geophysical tools for subsurface characterization is a common practice in environmental studies and georesources engineering. The electrical conductivity of the subsurface is strongly influenced by the different properties of the subsurface such as pore fluid chemistry, and consequently, by subsurface processes that affect the spatial distribution of that chemistry, such as the mixing dynamics of pore fluids. In the context of freshwater-saline water interaction in coastal areas, changes in solute spatial distribution are coupled to density-driven flow, which can thus be monitored via geoelectrical measurements. Here, we study the Rayleigh Taylor instability and subsequent convection occurring due to the density difference between two miscible liquids when the lighter one is positioned on top of the denser one, a configuration that is relevant for saltwater-freshwater interactions in coastal aquifers. We simulate the convective process and monitor it numerically by computing the transverse apparent conductivity of the medium in time, as the convection develops. We then look for correlations between the geoelectrical signal and a global scalar measure of the convective process’ advancement, namely the variance of the solute concentration field.

Hydrologic, Geophysical, and Geochemical Characterization of an Aquifer along the Beach of a Barrier Island

Published:

Abstract:

Coastal aquifers are of global importance. They nurture marine ecosystems and support billions of people living near the coast. Coastal groundwater resources are particularly important for small island communities like Mustang Island, Texas, where rising sea levels, violent storm surges, and urbanization seriously threaten the island’s aquifer. Mustang Island is a barrier island formed by sediment deposition during the last ice age. The permeable island foundation supports a small freshwater aquifer that perches atop saltwater, i.e., a freshwater lens. Freshwater lenses rely on rainfall for recharge and are susceptible to changes in sea level, including from storm surges. Consequently, freshwater lens aquifer systems frequently experience significant fluctuations in shape and extent. Here, as part of a field methods class at the University of Texas at Austin, we report the results of geophysical (electrical resistivity [ER]), geochemical, and hydraulic observations along a beach-perpendicular study transect at Port Aransas beach on Mustang Island. We mapped a water table inclined towards shore, and that changed with the tide. Our observations suggest the water table and unconfined aquifer were responding to a storm surge which occurred immediately prior to our field study. Groundwater salinity (and water electrical conductivity) increased toward the shoreline. ER imaging showed distinct zonation within the water table, measuring groundwater resistivity ranging from 2.0 - 3.6 Ohm-m between 1.5 to 3 m below the surface and groundwater resistivity of 1.1 - 1.7 Ohm-m within 1.5 m of the surface and below 3 m. Measurements of aquifer hydraulic conductivity (K) displayed distinct spatial heterogeneity, with the highest K-values measured near the shore, dunes, and 15 cm beneath the surface of the beach. The analyses of ER, geochemical, and K-value data were used to generate geochemical and geophysical models of the groundwater to better understand the evolution of the freshwater lens in the presence of a dynamic, saline tide.

Supra-permafrost groundwater’s contribution to stream flow and organic matter chemistry in the Arctic: estimation using combined mechanistic and statistical approaches

Published:

Abstract:

“Seasonally warm summers in the Arctic produce supra-permafrost aquifers within the active layer. However, the magnitude of groundwater flow, the amount of dissolved carbon and nutrients, and the solute flow paths are largely unknown, but critical to quantifying downgradient contributions to surface waters (lakes and rivers). To develop approachable methods to quantify groundwater inputs in continuous permafrost watersheds, we selected Imnavait Creek watershed on the North Slope of Alaska as a representative headwater drainage. We conducted 1000 groundwater flow simulations based on topography of the watershed and varying aquifer hydraulic conductivity and saturated thickness values. We fitted a lognormal distribution to the resulting 1000 model outputs, and we derived n=1e6 possible discharge values based on Monte Carlo random sampling on the model outputs. The groundwater discharge values integrated across the watershed generally agree with observed streamflow in Imnavait Creek over 2 months. When groundwater discharge estimates were combined with in-situ measurements of groundwater dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations, we found that Imnavait Creek’s organic matter load is also dominantly sourced from groundwater. Thus, riverine, and lacustrine ecological and biogeochemical processes relate strongly to groundwater phenomena in these continuous permafrost settings. As the Arctic warms and the active layer deepens, it will become more important to understand and predict supra-permafrost aquifer dynamics.”

teaching

Teaching experience 1

Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014

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Teaching experience 2

Workshop, University 1, Department, 2015

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