We are interested in the geometric and analytic mixing scales of solutions to passive
scalar problems. Here, we show that both notions are comparable after possibly
removing large-scale projections. In order to discuss our techniques in a transparent
way, we further introduce a dyadic model problem.
In a second part of our article we consider the question of sharp decay rates
for both scales for Sobolev regular initial data when evolving under the
transport equation and related active and passive scalar equations. Here, we
show that slightly faster rates than the expected algebraic decay rates are
optimal.