Pesticides are used in modern agriculture to increase crop yields, but they may pose a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems. Pesticides may enter water bodies through diffuse and point sources, but diffuse sources are probably the most important. Among diffuse pollution, surface runoff and erosion, leaching and drainage represent the major pathways. The most commonly used mitigation techniques to prevent pesticide input into water bodies include edge-of-field and riparian buffer strips, vegetated ditches and constructed wetlands. The first attempts to use wetland macrophytes for pesticide removal were carried out as early as the 1970s, but only in the last decade have constructed wetlands for pesticide mitigation become widespread. The paper summarizes 47 studies in which removal of 87 pesticides was monitored. The survey revealed that constructed wetlands with free water surface are the most commonly used type. Also, it has been identified that removal of pesticides is highly variable. The results of the survey revealed that the highest pesticide removal was achieved for pesticides of the organochlorine, strobilurin/strobin, organosphosphate and pyrethroid groups while the lowest removals were observed for pesticides of the triazinone, aryloxyalkanoic acid and urea groups. The removal of pesticides generally increases with increasing value of KOC but the relationship is not strong.
The hybrid systems were developed in the 1960s but their use increased only during the late 1990 s and in the 2000s mostly because of more stringent discharge limits for nitrogen and also more complex wastewaters treated in constructed wetlands (CWs). The early hybrid CWs consisted of several stages of vertical flow (VF) followed by several stages of horizontal flow (HF) beds. During the 1990 s, HF-VF and VF-HF hybrid systems were introduced. However, to achieve higher removal of total nitrogen or to treat more complex industrial and agricultural wastewaters other types of hybrid constructed wetlands including free water surface (FWS) CWs and multistage CWs have recently been used as well. The survey of 60 hybrid constructed wetlands from 24 countries reported after 2003 revealed that hybrid constructed wetlands are primarily used on Europe and in Asia while in other continents their use is limited. The most commonly used hybrid system is a VF-HF constructed wetland which has been used for treatment of both sewage and industrial wastewaters. On the other hand, the use of a HF-VF system has been reported only for treatment of municipal sewage. Out of 60 surveyed hybrid systems, 38 have been designed to treat municipal sewage while 22 hybrid systems were designed to treat various industrial and agricultural wastewaters. The more detailed analysis revealed that VF-HF hybrid constructed wetlands are slightly more efficient in ammonia removal than hybrid systems with FWS CWs, HF-VF systems or multistage VF and HF hybrid CWs. All types of hybrid CWs are comparable with single VF CWs in terms of NH4-N removal rates. On the other hand, CWs with FWS units remove substantially more total nitrogen as compared to other types of hybrid constructed wetlands. However, all types of hybrid constructed wetlands are more efficient in total nitrogen removal than single HF or VF constructed wetlands.
The first experiments on the use of wetland plants to treat wastewaters were carried out in the early 1950s by Dr. Käthe Seidel in Germany and the first full-scale systems were put into operation during the late 1960s. Since then, the subsurface systems have been commonly used in Europe while free water surface systems have been more popular in North America and Australia. During the 1970s and 1980s, the information on constructed wetland technology spread slowly. But since the 1990 s the technology has become international, facilitated by exchange among scientists and researchers around the world. Because of the need for more effective removal of ammonia and total nitrogen, during the 1990 s and 2000s vertical and horizontal flow constructed wetlands were combined to complement each other to achieve higher treatment efficiency. Today, constructed wetlands are recognized as a reliable wastewater treatment technology and they represent a suitable solution for the treatment of many types of wastewater.
- MeSH
- biodegradace MeSH
- čištění vody metody MeSH
- design vybavení MeSH
- ekosystém MeSH
- odpad tekutý - odstraňování metody MeSH
- pohyb vody MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Česká republika MeSH
