Abstract
Aquatic plants play an essential role and are effective in mitigating lake eutrophication by forming complex plant-soil system and retaining total nitrogen (TN) and phosphorus (TP) in soils to ultimately reduce their quantities in aquatic systems. Two main vegetation types (Phragmites australis community and P. australis + Typha latifolia community) of Qin Lake wetland were sampled in this study for the analysis of TN and TP contents and reserves in the wetland soils. The results showed that (1) the consumption effect of Qin Lake wetland on soluble N was much more significant than on soluble P. (2) The efficiency of TN enrichment in wetland soil was enhanced by vegetation covering of P. australis and T. latifolia. (3) Wetland soil P was consumed by P. australis community and this pattern was relieved with the introduction of T. latifolia. (4) According to the grey relativity analysis, the most intensive interaction between plants and soil occurred in summer. In addition, the exchange of N in soil-vegetation system primarily occurred in the 0–15 cm soil layer. Our results indicated that vegetation covering was essential to the enrichment of TN and TP, referring to the biology-related fixation in the wetland soil.
Highlights
Eutrophication has been an increasing problem in many countries
(3) Wetland soil P was consumed by P. australis community and this pattern was relieved with the introduction of T. latifolia
Our results indicated that vegetation covering was essential to the enrichment of Total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP), referring to the biology-related fixation in the wetland soil
Summary
Eutrophication has been an increasing problem in many countries. The Water Wheel reports in its recent issue that 54% of the lakes/reservoirs in Asia are impaired by eutrophication [1]. While various aquatic plants species have been adopted to treat eutrophication [7], Phragmites australis and Typha latifolia are the most commonly used aquatic plants in wetlands for the enhancement of water quality [8] They have relatively high nutrients enrichment efficiencies compared to other plants, such as yellow flag (Iris pseudacorus L.) [7], contributing to effective nutrients removal from water in wetlands. We select two typical riverfront communities (P. australis community, P. australis + T. latifolia community) in Qin Lake wetland to study the TN and TP stoichiometry in plant organs and the total N and P content in wetland soils and waters, as well as their seasonal variations, and to clarify how the two species differ in their contribution to wetland TN and TP enrichment, in order to improve understanding of the soilvegetation nutrient cycle in wetland ecosystem and help aquatic plants management for Qin Lake
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