• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.203-208
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• 2015

To identify the effect of fallen cherry blossom on the artificial pond ecosystem, microcosm experiment was conducted into the aquatic decomposition of Prunus species petals. Petals were put in $1mm^2$ mesh nylon litter bags. For treatment group, one flower litter bag was placed into each pot microcosm ($27{\times}20{\times}8cm^3$) filled with influent water from the artificial pond, whereas control group microcosm contained pond water only. Decomposition time were set differently (4, 8, 12, 16 days) among treatment groups. At the end of experiment, most petals were decomposed and only 32.3% of initial dry weight remained with the decay rate (k) of $7.06{\times}10^{-2}day^{-1}$. $NO_3-N$ concentration of microcosm water decreased sharply from 1.90 mg/L at first to 0.02 mg/L, whereas $NH_4-N$ concentration increased from 0.03 mg/L to 2.85 mg/L continually. $PO_4-P$ concentration was 0.03 mg/L at first and increased to 2.39 mg/L by decomposition. Therefore, available phosphorus seems to have leached with higher rate than nitrogen from the petals litter. Increase about 0.02 mg/L in $PO_4-P$ concentration could be estimated in artificial pond from the calculation on the total quantity of fallen blossoms. This result suggests that available phosphorus from the decomposed Prunus petals could cause eutrophication in the artificial pond.