ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Mitigation of Wastewater-Borne Chlorpyrifos
in Constructed Wetlands: the Role of Vegetation
on Partitioning
Chuan Wang1,2, Biyun Liu1, Dong Xu1, Dan Zhang1,2,
Feng He1, Qiaohong Zhou1, Zhenbin Wu1
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1State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Submission date: 2016-04-20
Final revision date: 2016-07-25
Acceptance date: 2016-07-26
Online publication date: 2017-01-31
Publication date: 2017-01-31
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2017;26(1):347-354
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ABSTRACT
Constructed wetlands (CWs) are regarded as a risk mitigation strategy for alleviating the risks associated
with agricultural runoff that contains pesticides. We investigated the partitioning pattern of wastewater-borne
chlorpyrifos, a widely used organophosphorus pesticide, in non-vegetated and vegetated CWs. Removal
rates of chlorpyrifos calculated from inflow and outflow concentrations ranged from 87.65% to 96.57%.
The average removal rate was significantly higher and more stable in vegetated CWs than in non-vegetated
CWs. As determined using a mass-balance method, outflows, macrophytes, substrate micro-degradation,
and ”other” accounted for 5.23%, 22.7%, 15.96%, and 56.11%, respectively, of the chlorpyrifos in the
vegetated system. Of all Iris pseudoacorus organs examined, the rhizome was dominant in biomass and
gathered the largest amount of chlorpyrifos. Except for the uptake of chlorpyrifos by plants, the primary
difference between vegetated and non-vegetated CWs was that there was a relatively low potential for
chlorpyrifos micro-degradation and volatilization and photolysis in vegetated CWs than in non-vegetated
CWs. Identification of this partitioning pattern elucidates the mechanisms underlying chlorpyrifos removal
from wastewater in CWs.