Plantas Acuaticas

Growth of three wetland plant species under single and multi-pollutant

wastewater conditions

Miranda A. Kearney,Weixing Zhu∗

Department of Biological Sciences, 4400 Vestal Parkway East, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13902, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 26 November 2011

Received in revised form 7 May 2012

Accepted 22 June 2012

Available online 21 July 2012

Keywords:

Urban wetlands

Heavy metal pollutants

Nitrogen pollutants

Glyceria grandis

Typha latifolia

Sagittaria latifolia

a b s t r a c t

Constructed wetlands are increasingly being used to treat wastewater, yet most remediation studies only

focus on single pollutants (e.g. nitrogen [N] or phosphorus [P]) or pollutant classes (e.g. nutrients). For

wetland remediation to be useful in urban systems, where storm generated wastewater often contains

many different pollutant types (e.g. nutrients and metals), wetlands must be able to both tolerate and

remediate these pollutant cocktails. Since plants are often integral to this treatment ability, the objective

of our study was to evaluate the growth of three common wetland plants (Glyceria grandis, Typha

latifolia and Sagittaria latifolia) treated with single and multi-pollutant wastewater types. We planted

six replicate blocks within the research greenhouse at Binghamton University located in Binghamton,

NY, USA. Each block contained 12 five-gallon pots filled with homogenized wetland sediment collected

from a natural wetland on campus. Four pots were planted with G. grandis, four with T. latifolia and four

with S. latifolia. Plants from each of the three species were assigned with one of four treatment solutions

(dionized water [control], nitrate [NO3

−], metal mixture [Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd], or nitrate and metal mixture),

and watered weekly for a total of seven weeks. Effluent was collected weekly and analyzed to determine

weekly NO3–N efflux. At peak standing biomass, all roots and shoots were harvested to determine

total aboveground and belowground biomass and N and P accumulation. Sediment was also collected

to determine net N mineralization rates. We found that the NO3

− treatment, metal treatment and the

combined NO3

− and metal treatment had no negative effect on plant growth and nutrient (N and P)

content. However, G. grandis produced a greater amount of aboveground biomass (33.09

±

0.72 g) and

had a greater amount of N (450.9

±

25.3 mg) in the aboveground biomass than T. latifolia (22.25

±

1.54 g;

300.0

±

21.8 mg) and S. latifolia (24.30

...