Plant Species Richness Affected Nitrogen Retention and Ecosystem Productivity in a Full‐Scale Constructed Wetland |
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| Authors: | Si‐Xi Zhu Peili Zhang Hai Wang Han‐Liang Ge Jie Chang Scott Chang Zhi Qiu Hongbo Shao Ying Ge |
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| Affiliation: | 1. College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P. R. China;2. Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada;3. The CAS/Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, Yantai Institute of Costal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Yantai, P. R. China;4. Environmental Science Research and Design Institute of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, P. R. China |
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| Abstract: | The effects of plant species richness (SR; i.e., 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 species per plot) on substrate nitrate and ammonium retention and ecosystem productivity in a full‐scale constructed wetland (CW) with high nitrogen (N) input were studied. Substrate nitrate (0.1–16.4 mg kg?1) and ammonium concentrations (1.3–9.2 mg kg?1) in this study were higher than those in other comparable biodiversity experiments. Substrate nitrate concentration significantly increased while ammonium concentration significantly decreased with the increase of plant SR (p = 0.008 and 0.040, respectively). The response of ecosystem productivity to increasing SR was unimodal with four species per plot achieving the greatest productivity. Transgressive overyielding, which was compared to the most productive of corresponding monocultures, did not occur in most polycultures. We conclude that substrate N retention was enhanced by plant SR even with high N input, and plant SR could be managed to improve the efficiency of N removals in CWs for wastewater treatment. |
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| Keywords: | Ammonium Biodiversity Nitrate Transgressive overyielding Wastewater treatment |
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