Research Article
Phosphorus Stabilization in Constructed Wetlands under Changing Hydroclimatic Conditions
| Pant HK* | |
| Department of Earth, Environmental and Geospatial Sciences, Lehman College, the City University of New York, USA | |
| Corresponding Author : | Pant HK Department of Earth, Environmental and Geospatial Sciences Lehman College, the City University of New York, USA Tel: (718) 960 5859 E-mail: hari.pant@lehman.cuny.edu |
| Rec date: Aug 20, 2014, Acc date: Oct 21, 2014, Pub date: Oct 30, 2014 | |
| Citation: Pant HK (2014) Phosphorus Stabilization in Constructed Wetlands under Changing Hydro-climatic Conditions. J Earth Sci Clim Change 5:229. doi: 10.4172/2157-7617.1000229 | |
| Copyright: © 2014 Pant HK. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
Although there is a reduction in P reaching aquatic systems from point sources, non-point sources such as urban and agricultural runoffs are bringing substantial amounts of phosphorus (P) into aquatic systems as the storm events are quite common due to climatic changes in various parts of the world, and making eutrophication of surface water a global concern. Constructed wetlands could play important roles in stabilizing P; hence reduce eutrophication of natural aquatic and semi-aquatic ecosystems. However, the selection of the construction site may well determine the effectiveness of a constructed wetland. This study shows that P transformation in soils is crucial for P sequestration in a wetland rather than the amounts of native P. Using 31Phosphorus Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (31P NMR), previously unreported an active organic P form, phosphorarginine, was identified. This study indicates that constructing wetlands on organic P-enriched sites may not solve the P loading to water bodies as the organic P compounds would not be as stable as they were thought, thus can play a crucial role in eutrophication, after all.
