Temporal variation of nitrogen balance within constructed wetlands treating slightly polluted water using a stable nitrogen isotope experiment

Zhang, Wanguang; Lei, Qiongye; Li, Zhengkui; Han, Huayang

Temporal variation of nitrogen balance within constructed wetlands treating slightly polluted water using a stable nitrogen isotope experiment

2016

Zhang, Wanguang | Lei, Qiongye | Li, Zhengkui | Han, Huayang

Slightly polluted water has become one of the main sources of nitrogen contaminants in recent years, for which constructed wetlands (CW) is a typical and efficient treatment. However, the knowledge about contribution of individual nitrogen removal pathways and nitrogen balance in constructed wetlands is still limited. In this study, a stable-isotope-addition experiment was performed in laboratory-scale constructed wetlands treating slightly polluted water to determine quantitative contribution of different pathways and temporal variation of nitrogen balance using Na¹⁵NO₃ as tracer. Microbial conversion and substrate retention were found to be the dominant pathways in nitrogen removal contributing 24.4–79.9 and 8.9–70.7 %, respectively, while plant contributed only 4.6–11.1 % through direct assimilation but promoted the efficiency of other pathways. In addition, microbial conversion became the major way to remove N whereas nitrogen retained in substrate at first was gradually released to be utilized by microbes and plants over time. The findings indicated that N₂ emission representing microbial conversion was not only the major but also permanent nitrogen removal process, thus keeping a high efficiency of microbial conversion is important for stable and efficient nitrogen removal in constructed wetlands.

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