Phosphorus mass load and outflow concentration relationships in stormwater treatment areas for Everglades restoration

Long-term phosphorus removal in the Everglades stormwater treatment areas of South Florida in the United States

“…At a PLR of <1.4 g P m À2 year À1 , outflow TP concentrations were <40 mg P L À1 , while at higher PLR, outflow TP concentrations increased with large variation. This PLR and outflow TP concentration relationship is comparable to what has been reported by Juston and DeBusk (2006), showing that STAs or STA cells loaded at 1.3 g P m À2 year À1 or less were likely to have outflow TP concentrations of 30 mg P L À1 or less regardless of their vegetation community type. Fig.…”

“…Inflow P concentration and P loading rate (PLR) often are used as independent variables to evaluate P removal performance in CWs (Coveney et al, 2002;Juston and DeBusk, 2006;Dunne et al, 2012). The importance of PLR to P removal performance has been noted in a number of studies over the last three decades (Nichols 1983;Richardson et al, 1997;Fisher and Acreman, 2004;Kadlec, Fig.…”

“…Outflow TP concentration and k value (settling rate for TP removal) are commonly used indicators to evaluate P removal in CWs (Coveney et al, 2002;Juston and DeBusk, 2006;Dunne et al, 2012). P removal processes are influenced by a number of factors including hydrologic regime, nutrient loading, and wetland size (Carleton et al, 2001;Toet et al, 2005;Kadlec, 2006;Chen, 2011).…”

Protecting the Florida Everglades wetlands with wetlands: Can stormwater phosphorus be reduced to oligotrophic conditions?

“…The dynamics of phosphorus in these wetlands has been evaluated and modeled in several studies (Newman and Pietro, 2001;DeBusk, 2006, 2011;Dierberg and DeBusk, 2008;Paudel et al, 2010;Paudel and Jawitz, 2012;Entry and Gottlieb, 2014). Juston and DeBusk (2006) found in an investigation of four of these STAs that mass loadings at or below 1.3 gP m À2 yr À1 provided "a high likelihood of achieving outflow total P (TP) concentrations less than 30 mg/L". Furthermore they found that in submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) wetlands and emergent vegetation wetlands restored from historic wetlands rather than agriculture, loading rates at or below 2 gP m À2 yr À1 led to outflow P concentrations consistently between 10 and 20 ppb and mass removal efficiencies consistently above 85%.…”

Comparison of long-term phosphorus removal performance of two large-scale constructed wetlands in South Florida, U.S.A

“…Previous studies reported that TP concentrations less than 30 mg P L À1 can be achieved when PLRs are restricted to <1.6 g P m À2 yr À1 (Chen et al, 2015;Ivanoff et al, 2013;Juston and DeBusk, 2006;Richardson and Qian, 1999), although other factors, such as HLR, inflow TP concentration, dominant vegetation type, and antecedent land use can also influence low outflow TP concentrations (Chen et al, 2015;Juston and DeBusk, 2006). The relationship of outflow TP to inflow HLR, PLR, and TP, SRP, or Ca concentrations and average water depths were evaluated using bivariate analysis by season (Figs.…”