Commentary on 'Mitsch et al., 2015, Protecting the Florida Everglades wetlands with wetlands: Can stormwater phosphorus be reduced to oligotrophic conditions?'

摘要

Constructed wetlands have been utilized with varying levels of success in an effort to reduce nutrient concentrations entering waterways. In south Florida, stormwater treatment areas (STAs) have been utilizedto remove excessive phosphorus (P) from surface waters for more than two decades with remarkableresults. Even though the STAs have been operational for more than two decade, further improvementof P removal performance is necessary to achieve the desired outflow concentrations. This commentary critically reviews a recently published manuscript concerning the ability of alternative vegetativecommunities' ability to improve STA treatment efficiency. The commentary provides clarification of Everglades STA effluent limit and the total P water quality criterion established for the Everglades ProtectionArea. The commentary also addresses fundamental issues with the authors' experimental design andinterpretability in light of the studies treatment fidelity, controls and scalability. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.