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Phosphorus removal from the hyper-eutrophic Lake Caohai (China) with large-scale water hyacinth cultivation

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Abstract

A phytoremediation project involving the large-scale cultivation of water hyacinths (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms) was conducted in Lake Caohai (China) from May to November during 2011–2013 to remove pollutants and decrease eutrophication. Water hyacinths were cultivated in two areas of Lake Caohai, Neicaohai, and Waicaohai, which are connected and function as a relatively independent water body. The areas for macrophyte growth varied in size from 4.30 km2 in 2011 to 0.85 km2 (2012) and 1.15 km2 (2013). Compared with historical data from 2007, the concentrations of total phosphorus decreased significantly, while dissolved oxygen concentrations increased slightly. After plant cultivation in 2011, the average concentrations of total phosphorus, total dissolved phosphorus, and phosphate anions decreased from 0.54, 0.35, and 0.23 mg L−1 upstream (river estuaries) to 0.15, 0.13, and 0.08 mg L−1 downstream (Xiyuan Channel), respectively. The amount of phosphorus assimilated by the macrophytes (44.31 t) was more than 100% of the total removed phosphorus (40.93 t) from lake water when water hyacinths covered 40.9% of the area, which could indicate sedimentary phosphorus release. Our study showed the great potential of utilizing water hyacinth phytoremediation to remove phosphorus in eutrophic waters.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the support of Kunming Dianchi Investment Corporation Limited, Kunming Environment Monitoring Center and the Management Center of Xiyuan Channel of Lake Caohai. We thank Kara Bogus, PhD, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Editing China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported by the Jiangsu Agriculture Science and Technology Independent Innovation Funds (CX(16)1003-3), the National Science and Technology Major Project of Water Pollution Control and Treatment (2017ZX07202004-007), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC41201533).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Institute of Agricultural Resource and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, China

    Yingying Zhang, Haiqin Liu, Shaohua Yan, Xuezheng Wen, Hongjie Qin & Zhiyong Zhang

  2. China Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory at Yangtze River Plain for Agricultural Environment, Nanjing, 210014, China

    Yingying Zhang, Haiqin Liu, Shaohua Yan, Xuezheng Wen, Hongjie Qin & Zhiyong Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory for Environment and Disaster Monitoring and Evaluation, Hubei, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Wuhan, 430077, China

    Zhi Wang

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  1. Yingying Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhiyong Zhang.

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Zhang, Y., Liu, H., Yan, S. et al. Phosphorus removal from the hyper-eutrophic Lake Caohai (China) with large-scale water hyacinth cultivation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 12975–12984 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04469-8

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