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A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Article history: Constructed wetland for treatment of municipal wastewater was studied with focus on seasonal
Received 20 November 2014 dynamics of heavy metals in the aboveground biomass of Phalaris arundinacea. Aboveground biomass
Received in revised form 6 March 2015 was harvested and evaluated in one or two-month intervals during the period May 2011–March 2012 and
Accepted 6 April 2015
concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn were determined. Using the heavy metal concentration and
Available online 11 April 2015
biomass values, accumulation as standing stock was calculated for each heavy metal. The results
indicated that maximum standing stock values occurred at different time for each heavy metals. The
Keywords:
results therefore revealed that it is not easy to set the optimum time for aboveground biomass harvest in
Constructed wetlands
Heavy metals
order to remove maximum of all heavy metals at one time. However, it seems that the harvest during the
Phalaris arundinacea early growing season may be the most effective.
Wastewater ã 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.04.008
0925-8574/ ã 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
T. Brezinová, J. Vymazal / Ecological Engineering 79 (2015) 94–99 95
has often been reported in the literature. However, the information 2. Materials and methods
on seasonal fluctuation of heavy metal accumulation in the
aboveground biomass of wetland plants has been reported only Constructed wetland Cì9 cenice, South Bohemia, Czech Republic,
seldom in natural wetlands (e.g., Tyler, 1971; Larsen and Schierup, was designed for treatment of municipal sewage from 450 PE. The
1981; Kufel, 1991; Windham et al., 2003) and only few results have system consists of mechanical pretreatment (screens, grit chamber
been published from constructed wetlands (e.g., Behrends et al., and Imhoff tank) with four equally sized beds filled with washed
1994; Bernard and Lauve, 1995; Maddison et al., 2009). gravel (8–16 mm) with a total area of 2400 m2. The system was
Total accumulation of an element in a particular compartment planted with Reed canarygrass (P. arundinacea) in 2010 and
is called standing stock (Brock et al., 1983; Twilley et al., 1985; provided full vegetation cover in 2011 (Fig. 1). The average air
Johnston, 1991). Standing stocks in the vegetation are commonly temperatures at the site were 9.7 C and 9.5 C in 2011 and 2012,
computed by multiplying nutrient concentrations in the plant respectively. The lowest and highest average monthly temper-
tissue by biomass per unit area and are expressed as mass per unit atures during the monitored period were 4 C (February 2012)
area (usually g m 2 or kg ha 1) (Richardson and Vymazal, 2001). and 18.5 C (August 2011). The average inflow and outflow
Therefore, both biomass amount and heavy metal concentrations concentrations of monitored heavy metals, BOD5, COD and TSS
are important for standing stock determination. In temperate and are given in Table 2.
cold climates, the seasonality of nutrient standing stock is very The research was carried out in one bed and the aboveground
much predictable. The maximum standing stock usually occurs at biomass of P. arundinacea was harvested in May June, July, August,
the time of maximum biomass and then decreases towards the end September and November 2011 and January and March 2012 in the
of growing season (Tyler, 1971; Richardson and Vymazal, 2001). On inflow and outflow zones of the filtration bed. The aboveground
the other hand, the standing stock seasonality for heavy metals biomass was clipped at the ground level from 0.25 m2 quadrants in
varies among metals and there is no uniform pattern (Tyler, 1971; four replicates both in inflow and outflow zones. The biomass was
Vymazal and Kröpfelová, 2008). separated into leaves (including leaf sheaths), stems and flowers (if
The aim of this study was (a) to evaluate the seasonal pattern of present) and dried at 60 C to a constant weight and weighed. The
heavy metals accumulation in the aboveground biomass of Phalaris biomass was then homogenized using a cutting mill (Pulverisette
arundinacea in a constructed wetland and (b) to evaluate the 15, FRITSCH) and mineralized in nitric acid (Ultrapur, Merck
optimum time for vegetation harvesting for maximum removal of Millipore) in a microwave (Berghof, Speedwave MWS-2) under
heavy metals from wastewater. high temperature and pressure. The concentrations of heavy
cenice; (A) October 2010, (B) May 2011, (C) June 2011, (D) February 2012 (photo authors).
Fig. 1. Constructed wetland in Cí9
96 T. Brezinová, J. Vymazal / Ecological Engineering 79 (2015) 94–99
3.2.1. Cadmium
The maximum cadmium standing stock of (0.15 mg m 2) was
recorded in July (Fig. 3) and since then it decreased steadily until
March when the standing stock value of 0.02 mg m 2 was recorded.
Eid et al. (2012) reported a very similar seasonal pattern for
cadmium standing stock in aboveground biomass of Typha
domingessis in Egypt with the peak standing stock occurring in
July at the time of the peak biomass. The range of standing stock
values found in our study were within the range (0.002–0.2 mg
m 2) reported in the literature for various plants in constructed
wetlands (Table 1).
3.2.2. Lead
Fig. 3. Average standing stocks of cadmium (top) and lead (bottom) in the
Lead standing stock (Fig. 3) exhibited similar seasonal pattern aboveground biomass of Phalaris arundinacea during the period May 2011–March
as cadmium and the highest stock of 0.82 mg m 2 was recorded in 2012 in CW Cí9 cenice. Different letters indicate significant difference at
June and, after a short steady stage, it started to decrease since a = 0.05 between the means.
T. Brezinová, J. Vymazal / Ecological Engineering 79 (2015) 94–99 97
Table 1
Accumulation of heavy metals as standing stock (mg m 2) in the aboveground biomass of wetlands plants in constructed and natural wetlands. HF CW – horizontal subsurface
flow constructed wetland, VF CW = vertical flow constructed wetlands, FWS CW = free water surface constructed wetland.
Plant Location Cd Pb Ni Cu Zn Cr
1 Phalaris arundinacea FWS CW USA 0.2 0.6–3.2 2.3–16.9
2 Phalaris arundinacea Czech 0.014 1.32 5.97 8.81 28.5 0.54
HF CW Republic
3 Phragmites australis Belgium 0.038 0.36 0.57 2.9 30 0.57
HF CW
4 Phalaris arundinacea USA 0.76–2.0 6.6–14.8
HF CW
3 Phragmites australis Belgium 0.014 0.44 0.91 7.5 90 0.6
VF CW
5 Phragmites australis USA 0.057 0.10 3.2 18.4
HF CW
6 Phragmites australis Italy 3.23 9.19 90.3
HF CW
4 Phragmites australis USA 3.5–5.7 22-81
HF CW
7 Typha latifolia Estonia 0.002–0.2 0.02–0.6 0.2–9.2 1.1-53.7
FWS CW
4 Typha spp. USA 0.8–1.9 5.2-12
HF CW
1 Phalaris arundinacea USA 0.1–1.1 0.5–3.6 2.0-21
Natural stand
8 Phragmites australis Natural stand USA 0.05–1.1 0.4–4.4 1.6–49 0.06-1.1
9 Phragmites australis Denmark <0.08 <0.8 1.0–1.5 14–26
Two lakes
10 Phragmites australis Poland 2.53
Eutrophic lake
10 Typha angustifolia Eutrophic lake Poland 0.03
1-Bernard and Lauve (1995), 2-Vymazal et al., (2010b), 3-Lesage et al. (2007b), 4-Behrends et al. (1994), 5- Peverly et al. (1995), 6- Galletti et al. (2010), 7-Maddison et al.
(2009), 8-Windham et al. (2003), 9- Schierup and Larsen (1981), 10-Kufel (1991).
constructed wetland Brehov in the Czech Republic. Also Galletti steady decrease in copper standing stock for Scirpus acutus
et al. (2010) reported higher standing stock in constructed throughout the growing season. The results shown in Table 1
wetlands in Ferrara, Italy (Table 1). indicated that standing stock values found in our study are lower if
compared to most values reported in the literature.
3.2.4. Copper
Copper also exhibited the highest standing stock (1.13 mg m 2)
3.2.5. Zinc
early in the growing season (Fig. 4). After that, the standing stock
The seasonal pattern of zinc standing stock (Fig. 5) exhibited the
decreased but increased again in January and March. The same
highest value in June but in general, it remained very steady during
seasonal pattern of copper standing stock was reported by Tyler
the monitored period. The standing stock varied only between
(1971) for several wetland plants in Sweden. Also Behrends et al.
7.89 mg m 2 in June and 4.96 mg m 2 in March. The seasonal
(1994) observed the same pattern for P. arundinacea and P. australis
pattern is in accordance with that reported by Tyler (1971) for
in a HF constructed wetland in Alabama. However, in the same
several wetland plants in Sweden but other studies reported
experiment, copper standing stock gradually increased throughout
different seasonal patterns. Windham et al. (2003) observed a
the period of June–November for Scirpus cyperinus,S. atrovirens and
steady increase in Zn standing stock in P. australis between April
Typha spp. The same pattern was observed by Windham et al.
and October while and Behrends et al. (1994) reported a steady
(2003) in P. australis in a natural wetland in New Jersey during the
increase for P. australis, S. cyperinus, S. atrovirens and Typha spp.
period of April–October. On the other hand, Eid et al. (2012)
During the period June–November. Eid et al. (2012), on the other
reported a steady increase of copper standing stock in
hand, observed a clean peak zinc standing stock value in July for
T. domingensis in Egypt from February to July up to the value of
T. domingensis in Egypt and the same pattern was observed by
about 55 mg m 2 followed by steady decrease until October. In
Behrends et al. (1994) for S. acutus in Alabama. The data presented
contrast to all mentioned studies, Behrends et al. (1994) reported a
in Table 1 indicated that zinc standing stock measured in our study
are lower as compared to values reported in the literature.
Table 2
Average inflow and outflow concentrations of monitored heavy metals during the
period 5/2011-3/2012 (n = 8) and average concentrations of BOD5, COD and TSS 3.2.6. Chromium
during the period 1/2011-12/2012 (n = 8, data obtained from the local municipality). Chromium standing stock in P. arundinacea (Fig. 6) exhibited a
Inflow Outflow Removal Inflow Outflow Removal
unique seasonal pattern which differed from all other studied
(mg l 1) (mg l 1) (%) (mg l 1) (mg l 1) (%) heavy metals. The standing stock values in the beginning of the
BOD5 82 8.5 90 Zn 26.4 12.8 52
growing season (May, June) were followed by a decrease in July and
COD 187 39 79 Cu 5.7 3.8 33 the increase again with the peak standing stock occurring in
TSS 71 16 77 Pb 4.5 3.2 29 September (Fig. 6). After September, the standing stock values
Ni 2.8 2.1 25 decreased slightly but remained higher than those found in the
Cr 0.91 0.75 18
beginning of the growing season. Windham et al. (2003) reported
Cd 0.81 0.73 10
quite opposite seasonal pattern for P. australis with increase in
98 T. Brezinová, J. Vymazal / Ecological Engineering 79 (2015) 94–99
Table 3
Minimum and maximum heavy metal standing stocks and time of respective
occurrence during the monitored period (May 2011–March 2012). In parentheses,
minimum standing stock values as percentage of maximum values.
2
Standing stock (mg m ) Month
Fig. 4. Average standing stocks of nickel (top) and copper (bottom) in the
aboveground biomass of Phalaris arundinacea during the period May 2011–March
2012. Different letters indicate significant difference at a = 0.05 between the means.
pattern. Moreover, available literature data revealed that seasonal
pattern and time of maximum standing stock for individual heavy
standing stock in June and lower values before and after that. The metals may differ. However, the results presented in Table 3
peak standing stock value found in our study was lower that values suggest that the minimum standing stock, i.e., the lowest
reported in the literature (Table 1). accumulation of heavy metals occurs in March in the senescent
plant tissues due to low biomass (Fig. 2). Biomass is the factor
3.2.7. All monitored heavy metals which determines the value of standing stock (Richardson and
The results of the present study indicated that seasonal Vymazal, 2001). Despite the low biomass in May (Fig. 2), three
distribution of heavy metals in the aboveground biomass of heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Zn) exhibited the highest accumulation at
P. arundinacea varies among metals and there is no clear seasonal this time (Table 3) indicating high rate of uptake and subsequent
translocation from roots to shoots in the early growing season. The
data shown in Table 3 indicated that the harvest in appropriate
time can substantially increase the removed amount of heavy
metals. It is obvious that further research is necessary to optimize
vegetation harvesting for heavy metal removal in constructed
wetlands.
4. Conclusions
The results obtained during this study have shown that heavy
metals accumulation in the aboveground biomass of P. arundinacea
growing in a constructed wetland treating municipal sewage varies
substantially during the season and also among heavy metals. It
seems that various heavy metals follow different seasonal pattern
and therefore, it is not possible to find optimum time for harvest
during the year in order to obtain maximum removal of all heavy
metals at the same time. Despite low aboveground biomass in the
early growing season, some heavy metals exhibited the highest
Fig. 5. Average standing stocks of zinc in the aboveground biomass of Phalaris
arundinacea during the period May 2011–March 2012. No statistical difference were
level of accumulation at this time. Appropriate time for harvest
found among monthly means. may optimize removal of heavy metals in constructed wetlands.
T. Brezinová, J. Vymazal / Ecological Engineering 79 (2015) 94–99 99