ABSTRACT
Underground river sediment cores were taken from the river Unec in Slovene central karst region. The sediment comprised 27% clay minerals, of which constituent parts were muscovite, illite, chlorite, montmorillonite and their mixed layer counterparts. Disturbed and undisturbed cores were used in continuos flow conditions to assess the velocity of movement and recovered quantity of salmonella phage P22H5, coliphage T7 and fluorescent dies uranine and rodamine B through the sediment. Only uranine (recovery-up to 43.1%) and phage P22H5 (recovery-up to 2.6%) appeared through disturbed sediments in measurable quantities, while rhodamine B and coliphage T7 appeared only in traces through some columns. Coliphage T7 was not detected in outflow of ten undisturbed cores but rhodamine B appeared only through some of them with recovery values between 0.009 to 3.8%. Recovery values of uranine and salmonella phage after 42 days were between 14.5 to 62.5 and 0.045 to 74.9 %, respectively. Corresponding velocity was 0.48 to 0.69 cm day-1 for rhodamine B, 1.7 to 7.4 cm day−1 for uranine and 11.4 to 40 cm day−1 for salmonella phage P22H5.
