Full-Scale
Floating Treatment Wetlands
(Completed)
Significance:
Provide a training site for a full-scale floating wetland in Nebraska.
Objective:
Demonstrate the feasibility of floating treatment wetlands for chemical and biological approach to removing internal nutrients from a eutrophic pond in Nebraska
Hypothesis:
Floating treatment wetlands will remove nutrients at similar rates as observed at the mesocosm scale
Conclusions:
Biological-chemical treatment was effective at microcosm, mesocosm, and field scale.
. Microcosm experiment removed 45% nitrate-nitrogen and 98% phosphate-phosphorus after 5 days.
. Slow-release lanthanum reduced phosphate by 98% within 1 h in mesocosm experiment.
. Carex and Schoenoplectus removed the most nitrogen and phosphorus via plant uptake.
Funded: Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy
Publication:
McKercher, L.J., Messer, T.L., Mittelstet, A.R., and Comfort, S.D. 2022. A Biological and Chemical Approach to Restoring Water Quality: A Case Study in an Urban Eutrophic Pond. Journal of Environmental Management. 318: 115463. doi. 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.11563
Chaffee, M., Mittelstet, A., Comfort, S., Messer, T., and Shrestha, N. 2023. Monitoring temporal chlorophyll-a using Sentinel-2 imagery in urban retention ponds receiving a biological-chemical treatment. Journal of Ecological Engineering, doi: 197:107123.
Graduate Student: Levi McKercher