Impacts of aquatic macrophytes configuration modes on water quality

Abstract

Constructed wetland technology is regarded as an important ecological restoration technology and used widely in sewage disposal. In order to give them a wider scope of application and to improve their performance in water restoration, the current experiment was designed. Four aquatic macrophytes (dwarf cattail (TM), yellow-flowered iris (WI), water shallot (ST) and watermifoil (MS)) were picked and planted in artificial floating islands (AFIs) in different configurations (TM + WI, ST + MS and TM + WI + MS) and two patterns, radiation pattern (RP) and annular pattern (AP), for a 60-day experiment. Then, water quality and growth were monitored every 10 days. The results indicate that the different configurations performed diversely on waste water purification. First, a composite plant configuration removed more pollutant than a single one with the same total increment of biomass. Second, the plant configuration of MS + ST was most effective in total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) or PO43− removal, and TM + IW + MS was good at chemical oxygen demand (COD) and NO3− removal. However, different patterns comprised from the same species had a certain effect on absorption of pollutants. Generally speaking, plant configurations with a RP were better than an AP in purification. Accordingly, these provided the methods for the pollution wetland restoration.