Plant Litter Submergence Affects the Water Quality of a Constructed Wetland.

ABSTRACT: Plant litter is an indispensable component of constructed wetlands, but how the submergence of plant litter affects their ecosystem functions and services, such as water purification, is still unclear. Moreover, it is also unclear whether the effects of plant litter submergence depend on other factors such as the duration of litter submergence, water source or litter species identity. Here we conducted a greenhouse experiment by submerging the litter of 7 wetland plant species into three types of water substrates and monitoring changes in water nutrient concentrations. Litter submergence affected water quality positively via decreasing the concentration of nitrate nitrogen and negatively via increasing the concentrations of total nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen and total phosphorus. The effect

SUBMITTER: Pan X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5271387 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature