Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Biofilm; Floating treatment wetlands; Management strategy; Non-point source pollution; Nutrient reduction; Urban retention pond

Abstract

Excess nutrients in shallow urban ponds can lead to harmful algal blooms, low dissolved oxygen, and internal phosphorus cycling. These effects can compromise municipal water supplies and cause negative impacts on fisheries and recreation. Floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) show promise to mitigate surface water nutrient pollution. However, despite recent research, many aspects of FTWs remain poorly characterized. The contribution of FTW components to nutrient removal, local species selection, and plant management strategies were the focus of this dissertation. Mesocosm experiments revealed that the combination of plants and coir fiber growth media in FTWs appeared to positively affect plant biomass gain and nutrient removal from water over controls containing only floating mats. In species-specific nutrient removal experiments, pickerelweed, softstem bulrush, and southern blueflag iris reduced nutrient concentrations to a greater degree than controls. While plant biomass gain was not significantly different than controls, there was significant total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) gain for pickerelweed, and TN gain for bulrush compared to controls. Bulrush also showed greater total dissolved nitrogen removal compared to controls. Results of a plant management study performing aerial harvest, whole-plant harvest, and passive management of FTW macrophytes suggested harvesting may not benefit FTWs in the short term. Simple passive management of mesocosms led to very low nutrient concentrations through mid-December. TP mass in settled detritus in controls suggested that algae and bacteria played a significant role in reducing TP in those controls while plants had greater influence on TP reduction in planted FTWs.

Advisor(s)

Fitch, Mark W.
Niyogi, Dev

Committee Member(s)

Mendoza, Cesar
Wang, Jianmin
Burken, Joel G. (Joel Gerard)

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Civil Engineering

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Fall 2025

Journal article titles appearing in thesis/dissertation

Paper I, found on pages 34–59, is intended for submission to ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING Journal.

Paper II, found on pages 60–86, is intended for submission to WATER ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH Journal.

Paper III, found on pages 87–125, is intended for submission to SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT Journal.

Pagination

xv,168 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes_bibliographical_references_(pages 140-152)

Rights

© 2025 Carla Campbell , All Rights Reserved

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 12559

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