Ecosystem Health and Sustainability · Published 2026-08-05 · DOI 10.34133/ehs.0588
Suya Wu, Wenxin Huai, Yidan Ai, Mengyang Liu, Zhonghua Yang
Understanding the drift dynamics of fish eggs provides a useful basis for estimating early fish resource abundance, yet existing studies rarely account simultaneously for submerged vegetation, egg water hardening, and deposition–resuspension dynamics. We developed an Euler–Lagrange framework that couples a vegetated flow field with an egg random displacement model, an egg settling velocity model, and time-dependent egg water hardening to simulate grass carp egg transport in submerged vegetated channels. The model reproduced a 3-stage evolution of the suspension fraction, with an early decline, a subsequent recovery, and final stabilization. Ignoring the postfertilization decrease in settling velocity reduced the predicted steady suspension fraction by about 10%, whereas neglecting deposition and resuspension overestimated the centroid drift distance by about 116.8 m after 4 h. Within the investigated parameter range of a submergence ratio of 2.0 to 4.8 and a vegetation density of 0.012 to 0.084, higher vegetation density lowered suspension fraction and weakened sustained downstream transport, whereas larger submergence ratio increased suspension fraction, raised the minimum suspension level, and promoted longer centroid drift distance. These findings clarify how submerged vegetation regulates egg retention and transport and provide a basis for improving early-stage egg resource estimation and evaluating ecological sustainability in vegetated rivers.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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Wu, S., Huai, W., Ai, Y., et al. (2026). Submerged Vegetation Retards Drifting Fish Egg Transport and Alters Suspension Fraction Evolution. Ecosystem Health and Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.34133/ehs.0588