Floating Vegetated Mats for Improving Surface Water Quality - Emerging Environmental Technologies - page 234

two varieties of bermuda grass and a wild millet. Preliminary research using float-
ing mats on aquaculture wastewater showed that iris grew best. The aquaculture
wastewater had much lower levels of N and P than the wastewater from the swine
lagoons.
Future use of floating mat technology will depend on research to match plant
species to water quality, determine which species produce the most biomass and
remove the most nutrients, development of methods for using the biomass such as
composting, using as a bioenergy feedstock, or else directly transplanting material,
development of engineering techniques to completely mechanize the process, and
economic analyses of all facets of this emerging technology.
References
1. U.S. EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). (1990) National water quality inventory.
1988 Report to Congress. Office of Water. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC,
USA.
2. Environmental indicators of water quality in the United States. (1996) EPA 841-R-96-002.
USEPA, Office of Water (4503F), U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, USA.
3. NRC (National Research Council) (1993) Managing Wastewater in Coastal Urban Areas .
National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
4. OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) (1982) Eutrophication of
Waters: Monitoring, Assessment and Control . Organisation for Economic and Cooperative
Development, Paris.
5. NRC (National Research Council) (1992) Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems: Science,
Technology and Public Policy . National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
6. Howarth, R.W. (1988) Nutrient limitation of net primary production in marine ecosystems.
Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. , 19: 98-110.
7. Howarth, R.W., Billen, G., Swaney, D., Townsend, A., Jaworski, N., Lajtha, K., Downing,
J.A., Elmgren, R., Caraco, N., Jordan, T., Berendse, F., Freney, J., Kudeyarov, V., Murdoch,
P., and Zhao-Liang, Zhu (1996) Regional nitrogen budgets and riverine inputs of N and P for
the drainages to the North Atlantic Ocean: natural and human influences. Biogeochemistry ,
35: 75-139.
8. Nixon, S.W., Ammerman, J.W., Atkinson, L.P., Berounsky, V.M., Bilen, G., Boicourt, W.C.,
Boynton, W.R., Church, T.M., DiToro, D.M., Elmgren, R., Garber, J., Giblin, A.E., Jahnke,
R.A., Owens, N.J. P., Pilson, M.E. Q., and Seitzinger, S.P. (1996) The fate of nitrogen and
phosphorus at the land-sea margin of the North Atlantic Ocean. Biogeochemistry , 35: 141-
180.
9. Carpenter, S.R., Caraco, N.R., Correll, D.L., Howarth, R.W., Sharpley, A.N., and Smith, V.H.
(1998) Nonpoint pollution of surface waters with phosphorus and nitrogen. Ecol. Appl. , 8(3):
559-568.
10. Sandstedt, C.A. (1990) Nitrates: Sources and Their Effects Upon Humans and Livestock .
American University, Washington, DC.
11. Amdur, M.O., Dull, J., and Klassen, E.D. (Eds.) (1991) Casarett and Doull's Toxicology .4th
ed. , Pergamon Press, New York.
12. Meisinger, J.J. (1976) Nitrogen application rates consistent with environmental constraints for
potatoes on Long Island. Cornell Univ. Agric. Exp. Sta. Search Agric. , 6: 1-9.
13. Saffigna, P.G., and Keeney, D.R. (1977) Nitrate and chloride in groundwater under irrigated
agriculture in central Wisconsin. Ground Water , 15: 170-177.
14. Exner, M.E., and Spalding, R.F. (1979) Evolution of contaminated groundwater in Holt
County, Nebraska. Water Resour. Res. , 15: 139-147.