Dataset for laboratory measurements and particle-transport modeling of waterfowl fecal particles in aquatic environments

This dataset accompanies the manuscript "Transport and dispersion of mallard fecal particles throughout the water column and implications for environmental surveillance of avian influenza viruses." It contains experimental measurements and numerical modeling outputs used to investigate the transport and fate of mallard fecal particles in wind-driven aquatic environments. Experimental settling measurements, including raw particle tracking data and processed datasets describing the relationship between fecal-particle diameter and terminal settling velocity for three groups of mallard fecal samples. Numerical modeling outputs, including calculated velocity and turbulence profiles for representative wind-driven lakes and summary statistics from three-dimensional Lagrangian particle-tracking simulations. The modeling outputs describe the temporal evolution of particle transport, suspension, settling, and spatial distribution under representative hydrodynamic conditions. These data support the development and validation of a drag-law settling model and provide the input and output datasets used to evaluate size-dependent transport of fecal particles in aquatic systems. The dataset is intended to facilitate reproducibility of the published analyses and to support future research on environmental transport of pathogen-associated particulate material, environmental surveillance, and aquatic transport modeling.