Prof. Tomasz Okruszko explains what role wetlands play in the environment and how they are affected by human activity.
Wetlands play a significant role in agricultural landscape. They are the areas of exception-ally great natural values able to regulate water cycling in river catchments. In many cases they are the basic food source for bred animals.
Large areas of wetlands (c. 4 million ha) have been drained for agricultural purposes in Poland. Nevertheless, there are still numerous natural (or close to natural) wetlands, part of which is protected in nature reserves or national parks.
Having in mind the transformation of agriculture and the need of protecting water resources and natural environment, it is necessary to regulate the principles of utilisation and management of re-claimed wetlands. Water management should be adjusted to the type of an area and to environmental requirements. Regardless of the type and intensity of agricultural use of wetlands one has to aim at limiting rapid outflow of spring thaw and rainfall waters which means the reconstruction and increas-ing of natural retention capacity of the river catchment. It is necessary to provide an appropriate num-ber of water lifting facilities and their proper exploitation in land reclamation objects.
It is as well necessary to create appropriate organizational, legal and financial conditions stimu-lating actions to improve water balance and wetland protection.
The Włodawka River catchment of an area of 725 km2 covers the central and eastern part of the Łęczna-Włodawa Lake District. Evaluation of the role of hydrogenic areas in runoff creation was based on materials of the Department of Hydrography and the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management data. The analysis was conducted for selected catchments in which additional hydrometric measurements and water quality tests were done. Such parameters as: the share of hydrogenic surfaces in total catchment area, types of wetlands, their hypsometric location and position with reference to drainage streams were taken into consideration for evaluation. The degree of anthropogenic transformation of the marshland was expressed in terms of density and depth of the drainage ditches that dissect it. It was found that the drained gyttja of Krowie Bagno plays a considerable role in increasing the minimum discharge. Wetlands in the Włodawka River catchment influence the conditions of the runoff and water quality, which is noticeable, primarily, in the concentration of organic carbon, and of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds.
The potential of five plants namely Atriplex halimus L., A. canescens (Pursh) Nutt., Suaeda fruticosa (Forssk. ex J.F. Gmel.), Marrubium vulgare L. and Dittrichia viscosa (L.) Greuter from two selected wetlands in northwest Algeria subjected to house and industrial effluents were examined to assess their arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) diversity and colonization, as well as to determine their tolerance and ability in accumulating metallic trace elements (MTEs). The purpose was to investigate whether, or not, these fungi are related to metallic uptake. Arbuscular mycorrhizal association was observed in all plant species, since the dual association between AMF and dark septate endophytes (DSE) was found in roots of 80% plants species. Hence, the decreasing trend of metal accumulation in most plant organs was Zn>Cu>Pb, and the most effi cient species were M. vulgare> S. fruticosa> A. canescens> D. viscosa> A. halimus. The bioaccumulator factors exceeded the critical value (1.0) and the transport factors indicated that all these species were phytoremediators. Pearson correlation showed that Cd bioaccumulation and translocation were inhibited by AMF infection; meanwhile Zn, Pb and Cd accumulation were affected by AMF spore density and species richness, DSE frequency, pH, AMF and plant host. Native halophytes showed a multi-metallic resistance capacity in polluted wetlands. M. vulgare was the most efficient in metal accumulation and the best host for mycorrhizal fungi. AMF played a major role in metal accumulation and translocation.
This study investigated the operation of three full-scale Lemna System surface fl ow municipal wastewater treatment plants, built according to the Lemna Corporation design. These plants consist of two ponds, the first aerated and the second for duckweed, with a barrier grid in the latter to ensure uniform plant distribution across its area. According to designers duckweed improves the efficiency of wastewater treatment. The three treatment plants are situated in central Poland and they differ in the occurrence of duckweed, two of them, located in Raków and Bąkowiec, operate without duckweed. and the third in Falęcin Stary, Lemna minor covers ca. 90% of second pond surface. The efficiency of Lemna System wastewater treatment was found not to differ between the plants with and without duckweed. The aerated pond played the main role in reduction of pollutants in the investigated Lemna Systems
The paper presents results of research concerning operating of five small wastewater treatment plants working in two different technologies: hydrobotanical wastewater treatment plant and constructed wetland. Each object was designed for the treatment of domestic sewage after preliminary mechanical treatment in a septic tank. Hydrobotanical wastewater treatment plants and one of constructed wetland beds were built for treating sewage produced in educational institutions and resort. In the article attention is paid to possibility of exceeding the maximum allowable concentration of pollutants for three main indicators of pollution: BOD5, COD, and total suspension. The reduction of these indices is required by the Regulation of the Minister of Environment [14] for wastewater treatment plants with PE < 2000. In addition, the paper presents the effects of wastewater treatment to reduce biogens. The best quality of outflow was reached by outflows from constructed wetland treatment plants. None of the observed objects fulfilled the requirements in terms of allowable concentrations for total suspension. The most effective were objects operating in technology of “constructed wetland”.
The Water Framework Directive (WFD), whose basic aim was to create a legal back-ground for water bodies’ protection, undoubtedly affects all economic sectors. Being a specific and distinctly different water user, agriculture will have the greatest share in the implementation of WFD out of all sectors of national economy. This results from its special character (60% of the country area used by agriculture), large volume of water consumed by evapotranspiration, diffuse pollution etc. Implementation of WFD will call for undertaking of many activities to restrict an unfavourable im-pact of agriculture on water resources and water related ecosystems. It is assumed that agriculture should also protect water resources. Accomplishment of this task imposes significant changes in the land use of river basins. Water management can be an essential factor deciding about the sustainable development of rural areas and biological diversity of agricultural landscape. Actions undertaken so far to implement the WFD are mainly limited to the protection of water quality from agricultural pol-lution. It is also necessary to undertake implementation of other aims of WFD. This refers especially to the provision of good hydromorphological status of water bodies, protection of water related eco-systems and effective water use.
In order to reconstruct environmental changes in the Borzechowo mire, a sediment core was subjected to macrofossil and stratigraphic analyses. The mire is located in the eastern part of the Pomeranian Lakeland (Tuchola Forest, northern Poland). It is a limnogenic mire, formed as a result of terrestrialisation of a water body. The time of basal peat accumulation was estimated by radiocarbon dating as 9860±130 14C BP (Gd-12393) and by palynological analysis as Preboreal. The analysis of macrofossils shows that in that period, considerable hydrological changes took place in the study area. These hydrological changes were caused by melting of dead ice blocks that was common place in the Late Glacial and the Early Holocene.
In the paper, the research results on the removal of aliphatic hydrocarbons (C7 to C30) on constructed
wetlands have been presented. The research has been realized on the semi-technical scale constructed wetlands.
planted with reed Phragmites australis. The experimental installation is located on the filling station in Balice and treats the fraction of stormwater from this utility. The concentrations of total aliphatic hydrocarbons
in analyzed stormwater were between 96.02 µg/dm3 and 6177.33 µg/dm3
, and from 47.55 µg/dm3 to 5011.14
µg/dm3
in effluent from the installation. The average total aliphatic hydrocarbons removal effectiveness was
48%, the values ranged from 19% to 81%. Hydrocarbons C14 to C18 were removed with the lowest effectiveness (26%–32%), the lighter hydrocarbons – with higher one (39%–68%), however the highest removal
effectiveness were observed for the hydrocarbons with the highest carbon atoms numbers (from 51% for C20
to 92%–93% for C26–C30).
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an adequate alternative to treat wastewater generated from fruit and vegetable processing (FVWW); likewise, in recent years, artificial wetlands (AWs) have been applied as a post-treatment process for anaerobi-cally pre-treated wastewater. The objective of this work was to design a sustainable treatment system for FVWW composed of upflow anaerobic reactors (UASB) with phase separation and an AW system that receive the anaerobically pretreated effluent. Using the design methodologies for the UASB reactors and artificial wetlands with sub-surface flow (AW-SSF), the parameters of the combined AD-AW system that treat a wastewater flow of 300 m3∙d–1 were calculated. The UASB acidogenic system was adjusted to a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 10 h and organic loading rate (OLR) of 13.84 kg COD m–3∙d–1; meanwhile, the methanogenic and cascade UASB reactors with OLRs of 10.0 and 3.0 kg COD m3∙d–1, and HRTs of 11 and 10 h, respectively, achieve a high COD removal efficiency (above 94%), and an overall biogas production rate of 1.53 m3 of biogas per m3 of reactor capacity per day. According to the results obtained with the theoretical design, anaerobic-wetland combined system achieves an overall efficiency greater than 98%. The wastewater treated by the pro-posed system will allow the reuse of 30% of the water used in the washing of fruits and vegetables.