• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.289-300
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• 2013

In this study, two types of wetland plants, Eichhornia crassipes (a floating plant) and Ceratophyllum demersum (a submerged plant) were introduced to wetland mesocosms to understand how the water properties of wetlands such as pH, dissolved oxygen content, water temperature, oxidation reduction potential, and nutrient concentrations are affected by different types of wetland plant. The floating plant lives on the water surface and can block light penetration; it exhibited the lowest water temperature and temperature difference between lower and upper layers. After the addition of contaminants, the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration decreased abruptly but recovered continuously in all mesocosms; especially the submerged plants, which photosynthesize in water, showed the largest increases in DO and diel periodicity DO, as well as in pH value. The oxidation-reduction potential in both water and sediment were affected by the presence of wetland plants and plant type and the results suggest that various aspects of wetland biogeochemistry are affected by the presence and type of wetland plants. The total nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations in water decreased in the following order: Water only < Water + Soil < Floating Plants < Submerged Plants. Although both floating and submerged plants can control algal concentrations, the effect was more prominent for floating plants.