Engineered Wetland Evaluation

Research Task: 8327CM8.7.0
Task Manager: Joan S. (Thullen) Daniels

Municipal, agricultural, and industrial development in the arid western U.S. depletes already-scarce water resources needed to maintain wetland and riparian habitat. Ongoing loss of these habitats threatens a wide range of wetland- and riparian-dependent fish and wildlife resources. Often, the only water available for maintaining, restoring, or creating wetland and riparian habitat may be of impaired quality, such as reclaimed municipal wastewater, agricultural or stormwater drainage, highly saline water, or nitrate-contaminated groundwater. Associated with these waters are human and wildlife health risks that need to be remediated prior to reuse. FORT scientists are researching techniques for removing these contaminants naturally using constructed wetlands. Current research focuses on creating sustainable, cost-effective systems to reduce high nitrate levels in the water (shown to cause methemoglobinemia, or “blue-baby” syndrome) and to reduce or remediate endocrine-disrupting compounds (shown to negatively affect exposed aquatic organisms). FORT investigators will analyze data from pilot wetland systems and gather new information from the scientific literature to define how water quality, hydrology, wetland configuration, species composition of native aquatic vegetation, aquatic invertebrate communities, and system biogeochemistry interact so their functions can be optimized to improve and maintain healthy ecosystems. The results will give rise to natural, low-energy-consuming strategies that stakeholders managing existing wetland systems and those interested in building new ones can consider.

 For more information contact Joan S. (Thullen) Daniels