VARIATION IN THE NUTRIENT CONTENT OF PLANTS IN A CONSTRUCTED TREATMENT WETLAND SYSTEM

摘要

Constructed treatment wetland (CTW) systems are becoming more prevalent in therntreatment of wastewater from a variety of anthropogenic sources, particularly for polishing or tertiaryrntreatment purposes. Within these systems, plants play a major role in treating the wastewater, including arnsignificant role in nutrient removal. As such, there is the question of nutrient removal from the CTWrnsystem itself. The overall objective of the research, of which the work reported herein is a part, is onrnevaluating the efficacy of plant harvesting as a technique for removing sequestered nutrients from a CTWrnsystem. The work reported in this paper is focussed on quantifying the seasonal variation of nutrientrncontent within the plant tissue, assessing the nutrient distribution within the plants, and evaluating thernspatial variation in plant nutrient content along the flow path through the wetland. The findings, which arernbased on the results from one field season (2001) at an existing CTW system, are briefly outlined.