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Heavy Metal Behaviour in an Experimental Free Water Surface Wetland in the Venice Lagoon Watershed

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Abstract

Wetlands are effective in the treatment of polluted surface water. A semi-natural wetland pilot plant was established to verify the pollutant abatement effectiveness of the Venice Lagoon inlet water. The unique conditions of this brackish environmental site are: (1) a high concentration of carbonate and low concentrations of sulphides, and (2) the abundance of organic matter in sediments. The goal of this study was to examine how these characteristics influence the metal mobility in the wetland and to compare our results to published literature. The data collected were limited with respect to statistical analysis because the metal concentrations were often below the detection limits. Therefore, we chose to perform non-parametric analyses. To analyse the relationships among heavy metal concentrations and the physical and chemical wetland variables, and to investigate the processes of metal removal, we performed a multivariate statistical analysis and a Spearman correlation analysis. The results indicated that the reduced and basic conditions of the sediments seen in the Venice Lagoon environment facilitated the removal of metals due to the formation of insoluble compounds with sulphides and carbonates.

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Acknowledgements

The project was funded by the Venice Water Authority (Ministero Infrastrutture e Trasporti) and coordinated by its concessionaire Consorzio Venezia Nuova (CVN). We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Alberto Giulio Bernstein, Head of the Environmental Engineering Department of CVN. We also thank Protecno srl (Italy) for the provision of the hydraulic data and raw analysis, and Labcontrol snc (Italy) for assisting with the chemical analysis.

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  1. Planland – Studio tecnico Daniel Franco, Cannaregio 3841, Venezia, 30131, Italy

    Erika Mattiuzzo, Laura Favero, Francesca Zennaro & Daniel Franco

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  1. Erika Mattiuzzo
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  2. Laura Favero
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  3. Francesca Zennaro
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  4. Daniel Franco
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Correspondence to Erika Mattiuzzo.

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Mattiuzzo, E., Favero, L., Zennaro, F. et al. Heavy Metal Behaviour in an Experimental Free Water Surface Wetland in the Venice Lagoon Watershed. Water Air Soil Pollut 183, 143–151 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-007-9363-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-007-9363-7

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