Design and Application of Plant Ecological Space Technology in Water Eutrophication Control
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 3
Abstract
The use of aquatic plants has recently become a popular technique for ecological restoration and purification of eutrophic rivers and lakes. In this paper, various technologies were studied and designed against the background of research and demonstration projects for pollution control in Dianchi Lake and comprehensive improvement of water quality. Different technical units were designed in the horizontal and vertical spaces of the water body. Horizontal spaces included plant buffers on the surface, algae enrichment and diversion, innovative floating beds, and emerging plant zones at the shoreline. Vertical spaces include ecological floating beds, ecological jellyfish, and ecological membrane coverings. Spatial growth patterns of aquatic plants were constructed with rational use of water space and integration with various techniques to maximize the absorption of nutrients in the lake, increase the transparency of the water, and alleviate lake eutrophication. The previous technologies were combined, and technical demonstrations were conducted using experiments. We set up an integrated technical demonstration district with an area of on the north shore of Dianchi Lake, and the results demonstrated the following: water transparency increased by ; algae biomass decreased by ; and the percent removal of total phosphorous (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and chemical oxygen demand () was .
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The National Key Special Project for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (Grant No. 2012ZX07102-004) supported this study. We thank our colleagues and students from Fudan University for helping with the measurements. The work is supported by the Foundation of Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture in South China, Ministry of Agriculture, PR China. In addition, we are particularly grateful to Ms. Zhang Pengying for her efforts to improve the figures in this report.
References
Bachand, P. A. M., and A. J. Horne. 1999. “Denitrification in constructed free-water surface wetlands. Part II: Effects of vegetation and temperature.” Ecol. Eng. 14 (1–2): 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-8574(99)00017-8.
Braskerud, B. C. 2002. “Factors affecting nitrogen retention in small constructed wetlands treating agricultural non-point source pollution.” Ecol. Eng. 18 (3): 351–370. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-8574(01)00099-4.
Cheng, N. N. 2005. Study on gradual-submerging bed technique (GSB) for the revegetation of submerged macrophytes growth conditions. Nanjing, China: HoHai Univ.
China Ministry of Environmental Protection. 2002. Monitoring and analysis method of water and wastewater. China: China Environmental Science Press.
Drizo, A., C. A. Frost, J. Grace, and K. A. Smith. 1999. “Physico-chemical screening of phosphate-removing substrates for use in constructed wetland systems.” Water Res. 33 (17): 3595–3602. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0043-1354(99)00082-2.
Hoeger, S. 1988. “Schwimmkampen: Germany’s artificial floating islands.” J. Soil Water Conserv. 43 (4): 304–306.
Huang, L. L. D. C. Q. 2008. “Purification efficiency of several macrophytes on polluted inflow river of Dianchi Lake.” Ecol. Environ. 17 (4): 1385–1389.
Li, J. H., X. Y. Yang, Z. F. Wang, Y. Shan, and Z. Zheng. 2015. “Comparison of four aquatic plant treatment systems for nutrient removal from eutrophied water.” Bioresour. Technol. 179 (3): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2014.11.053.
Liang, W., Z.-B. Wu, F.-C. Zhan, and J.-Q. Deng. 2004. “Root zone microbial populations, urease activities, and purification efficiency for a constructed wetland.” Pedosphere 14 (3): 401–404.
Ma, J. Q., H. D. Zhou, and Z. R. Dong. 2005. “Study on aquatic macrophytes for purification of eutrophic water.” J. China Inst. Water 2 (3): 130–135.
Pu, P. M., W. Hu, J. Yan, G. Wang, and C. Hu. 1998. “A physico-ecological engineering experiment for water treatment in a hypertrophic lake in China.” Ecol. Eng. 10 (2): 179–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-8574(98)00017-2.
Pu, P. M., G. X. Wang, Z. K. Li, C. H. Hu, B. J. Chen, X. Y. Cheng, B. Li, S. Z. Zhang, and Y. Q. Fan. 2001. “Degradation of healthy aqua-ecosystem and its remediation: Theory, technology and application.” J. Lake. Sci. 13 (3): 193–203. https://doi.org/10.18307/20010301.
Sand-Jensen, K., H. H. Bruun, and L. Baastrup Spohr. 2017. “Decade-long time delays in nutrient and plant species dynamics during eutrophication and re-oligotrophication of Lake Fure 1900–2015.” J. Ecol. 105 (3): 690–700. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12715.
Scheffer, M. 1999. “The effect of aquatic vegetation on turbidity; how important are the filter feeders?” Hydrobiologia 408–409: 307–316. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017011320148.
Shrestha, R. K., and J. R. R. Alavalapati. 2004. “Valuing environmental benefits of silvopasture practice: A case study of the Lake Okeechobee watershed in Florida.” Ecol. Econ. 49 (3): 349–359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.01.015.
Sorrell, B. K., and W. Armstrong. 1994. “On the difficulties of measuring oxygen release by root systems of wetland plants.” J. Ecol. 82 (1): 177–183. https://doi.org/10.2307/2261396.
Steer, D., L. Fraser, J. Boddy, and B. Seibert. 2002. “Efficiency of small constructed wetlands for subsurface treatment of single-family domestic effluent.” Ecol. Eng. 18 (4): 429–440. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-8574(01)00104-5.
Tang, X. Q., S. L. Huang, M. Scholz, and J. Z. Li. 2009. “Nutrient removal in pilot-scale constructed wetlands treating eutrophic river water: Assessment of plants, intermittent artificial aeration and polyhedron hollow polypropylene balls.” Water Air Soil Pollut. 197 (1): 61–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-008-9791-z.
Wang, X., Z. Wang, W. T. Yang, X. J. Xi, L. Y. Shi, W. Y. Dong, Q. Zhang, and Y. N. Zhou. 2014. “Shortage of water resources in China and countermeasures.” Envirion. Eng. 32 (7): 1–5. https://doi.org/10.13205/j.hjgc.201407001.
Wu, Z. B., D. G. Qiu, F. He, G. P. Fu, S. P. Cheng, and J. M. Ma. 2003. “Effects of rehabilitation of submerged macrophytes on nutrient level of a eutrophic lake.” J. Appl. Ecol. 14 (4): 1351–1353. https://doi.org/10.13287/j.1001-9332.2003.0301.
Yang, L., H. T. Chang, and M. N. L. Huang. 2001. “Nutrient removal in gravel- and soil-based wetland microcosms with and without vegetation.” Ecol. Eng. 18 (1): 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-8574(01)00068-4.
Zeng, G. J., and M. A. Man-Ying. 2017. “Study on eutrophication of landscape water body treated by aeration-ecological floating bed.” J. Anhui Agri. Sci. 45 (23): 50–51. https://doi.org/10.13989/j.cnki.0517-6611.2017.23.017.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 145 • Issue 3 • March 2019
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 17, 2018
Accepted: Jul 31, 2018
Published online: Dec 20, 2018
Published in print: Mar 1, 2019
Discussion open until: May 20, 2019
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.