Paper No. 54-0
AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FOUR WETLAND PLANT SPECIES AND COMMUNITY COMPOSITION FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT
CARTY, Spring M.1, FRASER, Lauchlan H.1, and STEER, David N.2, (1) Biology, Univ of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-3908, spring@uakron.edu, (2) Geology, Univ of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-4101

The purpose of our study was to answer two questions: (1) are certain plants more efficient at treating wastewater and (2) do combinations of plants enhance treatment? We used microcosms, five gallon buckets filled with a peaty soil, and housed at the Bath Nature Preserve in Bath, Ohio. The study began in August 2001 and ran until October 2001. The experiment was a 6 x 2 factorial design: six plant treatments [no plants, Carex lacustris, Scirpus validus, Phalaris arundinacea, Typha latifolia and the combination of all four plants] and two treatment levels [low and high], replicated six times for a total of 72 microcosms. Monthly tests of total nitrogen and total phosphorus were conducted on a spectrometer and bimonthly analyses of nutrients were conducted on a photometer including nitrates, nitrate nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen and organophosphates. Dissolved oxygen, conductivity and pH were analyzed bimonthly using probes in the field. Preliminary results suggest that there is a differential effect of plant species on phytoremediation, particularly for the remediation of nitrate.

North-Central Section (36th) and Southeastern Section (51st), GSA Joint Annual Meeting (April 3–5, 2002)
Session No. 54
Wetlands Hydrology and Biogeochemistry II
Hyatt Regency Hotel: Patterson Ballroom B
1:00 PM-2:40 PM, Friday, April 5, 2002
 

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