Markus Flury
Professor, Crop and Soil Sciences flury@wsu.edu 253-445-4522 Kalkus Hall 330B, Puyallup 2606 West PioneerEducation
M.S. University of Zurich, Switzerland, 1989
Ph.D. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, 1993
Research
My principal research interest is in the area of flow and transport in porous media, particularly in the vadose zone. Specific areas include: (1) Colloids and nanoparticles in the environment; (2) characterization of water flow and solute transport in the vadose zone, (2) colloid and colloid-facilitated contaminant transport through the vadose zone, (3) soil physical instrumentation and their applications, (4) sustainable use of soil resources.
In the past years my group has focused on fate and transport of radionuclides in the subsurface, with special emphasis on clean-up of nuclear waste at the Hanford Reservation in Washington State. Recently, we have started to work on micro- and nanoplastics in terrestrial systems, focusing on extraction methods for biosolids and soils, accumulation in and transport through soil, and biodegradable plastics as alternative for polyethylene plastic mulch films.
Learn about research on the fate and transport of contaminants in the subsurface here.
Learn about vadose zone hydrology research at WSU here.
See the Soil Physics/Vadose Zone Hydrology Group Members here.
Publications
Yu, Y., A.F. Astner, T.M. Zahid, I. Chowdhury, D.G. Hayes, and M. Flury, Aggregation kinetics and stability of biodegradable nanoplastics in aquatic environments: Effects of UV-weathering and proteins, Water Res., 239, 120018, doi:10.1016/j.watres.2023.120018, 2023.
Yu, Y., A.K. Battu, T. Varga, A.C. Denny, T.M. Zahid, I. Chowdhury, and M. Flury, Minimal impacts of microplastics on soil physical properties under environmentally-relevant concentrations, Environ. Sci. Technol., 57, 5296{5304, 2023.
Pinos, J., M. Flury, J. Latron, and P. Llorens, Routing stemflow water through the soil: A dual labelling approach with artificial tracers, Hydrol. Earth System Sci., 27, 2865-2881, 2023.
Adhikari, K., A.F. Astner, J.M. DeBruyn, Y. Yu, D.G. Hayes, B.T. O’Callahan, and M. Flury, Interactions of earthworms with polyethylene and PBAT microplastics in soil: Microplastic characterization and microbial community analysis, ACS Agricultural Sci. Technol., 3, 340-349, 2023.
Astner, A.F., A.B. Gillmore, Y. Yu, M. Flury, J.M. DeBruyn, S.M. Schaeffer, and D.G. Hayes, Formation, behavior, properties and impact of micro- and nanoplastics on agricultural
soil ecosystems (a review), NanoImpact, 31, 100474, doi:10.1016/j.impact.2023.100474, 2023.
Wang, Y., S. Joseph, X. Wang, Z. H. Weng, D. R. G. Mitchell, S. Taherymoosavi, P. Munroe, G. Li, Q. Lin, Q. Chen, M. Flury, A. Cowie, O. Husson, L. Van Zwieten, Y. Kuzyakov, J. Lehmann, B. Li, and J. Shang, Inducing inorganic carbon accrual in subsoil through biochar application on calcareous topsoil, Environ. Sci. Technol., 57, 1837{1847, 2023. (Journal Front Cover)
Li, S., F. Ding, M. Flury, and J. Wang, Dynamics of macroplastics and microplastics formed by biodegradable mulch in an agricultural field, Sci. Total Environ., 894, 164674, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164674, 2023.
Salehi, Z., S. H. Hashemi, and M. Flury, Micro- and mesoplastics in farmlands with different irrigation water sources, Water Air Soil Poll., 234, 267, doi:10.1007/s11270-023-06289-6, 2023.
Groenveld, T., C. Obiero, Y. Yu, M. Flury, and M. Keller, Predawn leaf water potential of grapevines is not necessarily a good proxy for soil moisture, BMC Plant Biology, 23, 369, doi:10.1186/s12870-023-04378-6, 2023.
Wismeth, C., M. Flury, and T. Baumann, Experimental quantification of interfacial convections at the water-nonaqueous-phase liquid interface in microfluidic systems, Vadose Zone J., 22, e20209,
doi:10.1002/vzj2.20209, 2023.