What chemicals will floating plants suck up?

[Geniusdudekiran]

I'm looking into doing my Junior research project on using floating plants to slow the negative effects of the process of eutrophication in local waterways.

Of course, plants like duckweed, frogbit, RRF, hornwort, water lettuce, etc. will remove chemicals like Nitrates from our water. But, are they helpful in removing:

-Phosphates?
-Ammonia?
-Nitrites?

And any other chemicals commonly found in water?

Thanks in advance, guys!

[dbosman@msu.edu]

High school or college?
A high school student may not have the appropriate resources to do this project.
A college junior is supposed to have or supposed to be learning how to research, so providing answers may not be in your best interest.

Why do I care? I work in a university research library.

[jeremyTR]

Originally Posted by dbosman@msu.edu

High school or college?
A high school student may not have the appropriate resources to do this project.
A college junior is supposed to have or supposed to be learning how to research, so providing answers may not be in your best interest.

Why do I care? I work in a university research library.

Aka

DYODH.

Do your own damn homework. I'm just kidding though, that's what they tell everyone who asks for homework help on another forum I frequent.

Sent from my HTC Evo 4G

[Geniusdudekiran]

Originally Posted by dbosman@msu.edu

High school or college?
A high school student may not have the appropriate resources to do this project.
A college junior is supposed to have or supposed to be learning how to research, so providing answers may not be in your best interest.

Why do I care? I work in a university research library.

High school. I do. I'm making use of my resources. I'm a respected member on a forum in which many members use such plants in their aquariums, so I'm asking for first-hand experiences. This is not research. This is just "pre-research" so I can know exactly what I should be looking for when I really start doing research in scientific journals.

Originally Posted by jeremyTR

Aka

DYODH.

Do your own damn homework. I'm just kidding though, that's what they tell everyone who asks for homework help on another forum I frequent.

Sent from my HTC Evo 4G

See above

[Geniusdudekiran]

Anybody?

[AirstoND]

water lettuce & water hyacinth soak up excess lead and mercury

If you want to reduce eutrophication minimizing direct sunlight to water contact is crucial I think to reduce bacterial growth, but anaerobic conditions are not healthy to plants/water creatures, so a balance is needed between circulation and reducing nutrients through water irrigation engineering also i.e. canals, levees, collecting ponds

[NWA-Planted]

Oh cmon you guys he is doing homework he is using resources that are available to him!

To my very limited knowledge plants should soak up just about all that listed up there... I would Start doing some extensive research I have even seen tiered water pools at the end of parking lots to help with breaking down oils and such from the parking lot

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

[gordonrichards]

I second that. Plants take up all those and others chemicals.

I will hint at the fact that plants can utilize different chemicals at different levels and at some point, wouldn't be able to survive.

Seems like an interesting project. :^) I'm sure if you ask more detailed questions some people in the forum will happily point you in the right direction. Till that happens, google google google!

[brogan]

Isn't the purpose of doing research to, well do research? If you know the outcome, why bother.

[Geniusdudekiran]

Originally Posted by AirstoND

water lettuce & water hyacinth soak up excess lead and mercury

If you want to reduce eutrophication minimizing direct sunlight to water contact is crucial I think to reduce bacterial growth, but anaerobic conditions are not healthy to plants/water creatures, so a balance is needed between circulation and reducing nutrients through water irrigation engineering also i.e. canals, levees, collecting ponds

Thank you for the information

Originally Posted by NWA-Planted

Oh cmon you guys he is doing homework he is using resources that are available to him!

To my very limited knowledge plants should soak up just about all that listed up there... I would Start doing some extensive research I have even seen tiered water pools at the end of parking lots to help with breaking down oils and such from the parking lot

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

Thanks. That's an interesting concept, I'll check it out!

Originally Posted by gordonrichards

I second that. Plants take up all those and others chemicals.

I will hint at the fact that plants can utilize different chemicals at different levels and at some point, wouldn't be able to survive.

Seems like an interesting project. :^) I'm sure if you ask more detailed questions some people in the forum will happily point you in the right direction. Till that happens, google google google!

Thank you very much, Gordon. That's what I plan to do. Thanks.

Originally Posted by brogan

Isn't the purpose of doing research to, well do research? If you know the outcome, why bother.

Perhaps I wasn't clear earlier -- or you didn't bother to read -- the research is not centered on finding what chemicals plants will utilize and thus decrease levels of in water, but how effectively they will. I'm deciding which chemicals I should use, so it is necessary to know if they will do so at all. Thank you.

[AaronMB]

Originally Posted by Geniusdudekiran

...the research is not centered on finding what chemicals plants will utilize and thus decrease levels of in water, but how effectively they will. I'm deciding which chemicals I should use, so it is necessary to know if they will do so at all. Thank you.

Sounds like the making of a fun experiment (aka hands-on research)!

Looks like interesting reading.

[mistergreen]

Plants will soak up the chemicals and some heavy metals but the trick is to harvest/remove the plants after they've soaked up stuff. If they die, they'll release back what they absorbed directly or indirectly (bacterial actions).

[dbosman@msu.edu]

At a research library - training researchers ;-) we have reference librarians and subject specialists to help lead the way. A large part of their job is getting younger students off Google.
That said, for a high school researcher, Google scholar is your new second best friend.
http://scholar.google.com/
Wikipedia is great too IF you use the citations and look up the cited articles. Do NOT cite Wikipedia. Verify the citations are what you need, and cite them as needed.

For research notes, check out Zotero. http://www.zotero.org/
We offer classes in using it, and EndNote.
Both are excellent for organizing your notes and citations. If you properly store and use your citations, a paper will write significant chunks of itself. You just string the bits together and fill in your thoughts and conclusions.

One lead. Look up research articles on the state of Florida using water hyacinths to filter water. They pioneered a lot of the work.

[OVT]

Water hyacinth even sucks up cynide...