Abstract
Diatoms are heterokonts which are highly diverse and have significant evolutionary differences when compared with green algae and vascular plants. Diatoms drive primary production in all photic zones from the equator to arctic. Diatoms have great potential as bioindicators as their population diversity reflects the environmental conditions of their oceanic or riverine ecosystems. The ease of their detection and versatility across different ecosystems complements to their sensitivity to many physicochemical and biological changes. Diatom importance in marine and fresh water ecosystems is attributed to their primary role in aquatic food webs. Mass cultivation of microalgae for biodiesel and high-value products needs enormous supply of growth medium. Meeting this need from fresh water and fertilizers is not environmentally and economically sustainable. Hence, growing diatom algae utilizing the nutrient contents of wastewater will offer a natural wastewater treatment option with revenue generation potential. Constructed wetland-based decentralized wastewater treatment when followed by diatom treatment can reduce their footprint and increase their revenue generation potential. Performance monitoring of decentralized wastewater treatment facilities through standard physicochemical methods remains a challenge for remote locations as the time lag between sampling and analysis often diminishes the quality of performance evaluation. In this chapter we explore the enormous potential of diatom to augment the feasibility of constructed wetland as a sustainable wastewater treatment technology with simultaneous biomonitoring.
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Datta, A., Marella, T.K., Tiwari, A., Wani, S.P. (2019). The Diatoms: From Eutrophic Indicators to Mitigators. In: Gupta, S.K., Bux, F. (eds) Application of Microalgae in Wastewater Treatment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13913-1_2
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