Wetlands were historically neglected until it was revealed that they could be economically valuable to man. They are one of the most dynamic ecosystems in the world and have many functions for society. For example, natural wetlands provide food staples, building materials, irrigation of agricultural lands, waterways, shelter for wildlife, and a means of flood control. Constructed wetlands provide a reliable treatment technology for various types of polluted water, including industrial and agricultural wastewater, stormwater runoff, municipal sewage and landfill leachate.
Both natural and constructed wetlands require careful management in order to optimally provide these functions, and this volume presents the latest results in the field of management and performance optimization of these systems. The book covers wetland science worldwide, with examples from Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa.
It will be of interest not only to ecological and environmental scientists and teachers, but also to engineers, regulators and landscape planners.
Preface.- In Memoriam: Olga Urbanc-Bercic.- Reed stands conditions at selected wetlands in Slovenia and Hungary.- Water quality and macrophyte community changes in the Komarnik accumulation lake (Slovenia).- Latitudinal Trends in Organic Carbon Accumulation in Temperate Freshwater Peatlands.- Buffering performance in a papyrus dominated wetland system of the Kenyan portion of the Lake Victoria Basin.- Changes in concentrations of dissolved solids in precipitation and discharge water from drained pasture, natural wetland and spruce forest during the years of 1999-2006 in A umava mountains, Czech Republic.- Dynamics of litterfall and decomposition in peatland forests - Towards reliable carbon balance estimation?.- Near Infrared Spectroscopy for characterization of plant litter quality: Towards a simpler way of predicting C turnover in peatlands?.- Leachate treatment in newly-built peat filters: a pilot-scale study.- Monthly evapotranspiration coefficients of large reedbed habitats in the United Kingdom.- The Hydrological Sustainability of Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment.- Factors affecting metal accumulation, mobility and availability in intertidal wetlands of the Scheldt estuary (Belgium).- Reed bed sewage treatment and community development/participation.- The Constructed Wetland Association's database of constructed wetland systems in the UK.- Nitrogen removal by a combined subsurface vertical down-flow and up-flow constructed wetland system.- Statistical analysis of treatment performance in aerated and non-aerated subsurface flow constructed wetlands.- Constructed wetland Brehov: three years of monitoring.- Factors affecting the longevity of sub-surface horizontal flow systems operating as tertiary treatment for sewage effluent.- Investigations on nitrogen removal in a two-stage subsurface vertical flow constructed wetland.- Removal of heavy metals from industrial effluents by the submerged aquatic plant Myriophyllum spicatum L.- Cold season nitrogen removal in a high loaded free water surface wetland with emergent vegetation.- The role of vegetation in phosphorus removal by cold climate constructed wetland: the effects of aeration and growing season.- Performance of reed beds supplied with municipal landfill leachate.- Enhanced denitrification by a hybrid HF-FWS constructed wetland in a large scale wastewater treatment plant.- Growth dynamics of Pista stratiotes in temperate climate.- Fractionation, biodegradability and particle-size distribution of organic matter in horizontal subsurface-flow constructed wetlands.- Wastewater-fed Aquaculture Otelfingen, Switzerland: Influence of system design and operation parameters on the efficiency of nutrient incorporation into plant biomass.- Is concentration of dissolved oxygen a good indicator of processes in filtration beds of horizontal-flow constructed wetlands?.- Pollutant transformation performance and model development in African wetland systems: large catchment extrapolation.- Sulfur cycling in constructed wetlands.- Index.