Purification effect of aquatic plant communities in constructed wetland park: a comparative experiment of Tianhe wetland park in China

Abstract

Constructed wetland parks in urban areas can offer the potential for integrating water conservation and purification. Compared with other treatments, filtering out pollutants by wetland plants is one of the methods used widely for its fast processing time and limited costs. And species allocation plays an important role in the purification process. However, some problems are still waiting for further discussions, such as the purification efficiency in winter due to plant growth rate, etc. Against this background, this paper introduced the Tianhe Wetland Park in China as the site for a comparative experiment, to propose a methodology for testing the purification effect under different plant communities. Through site investigation and lab experiments with water monitoring, the process of water purification by wetland was simulated in the park. After a period of observation and measurement, seven water indexes (pH value, dissolved oxygen, total phosphorus, total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, chemical oxygen demand, and turbidity) were selected for the evaluation of water quality to compare the different absorption efficiency by different communities. As a result, the research showed that a configuration of plant community using arboreal, emergent, and submerged plants can carry out a good purification effect during the winter, including Callistemon viminalis, Bischofia javanica, Canna indica, Juncus effusus, Vallisneria natans, and Hydrilla verticillata var. rosburghii. The removal rate of DO, TU, COD, TP, and TN by the designed community can reach 43%, 65%, 45%, 51%, and 62% in sampling sites. Finally, based on the research results, further suggestions for the development of wetlands were proposed to improve park management in the study area.