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Enhanced phosphorus removal of constructed wetland through plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) addition

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Abstract

Phosphorus (P) removal efficiency of constructed wetland (CW) was limited due to the adsorption saturation on substrate surface along with continuous operation of CW. This study attempted to improve the P removal of CW through introduction of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Compared with the control-CW (C-CW), the results of CW with bio-augmentation (B-CW) showed that the total phosphorus (TP) removal efficiency was increased by 36.7% due to the enhanced plant uptake of P. The physiology indicators (height and root activity) of plants in B-CW were significantly improved, and the average P content of plants in B-CW was 0.78 g/kg, which was 85.7% higher than that of C-CW (0.42 g/kg). This was because PGPR addition optimized the P forms adsorbed on substrate surface and increased the proportion of Ca/Mg-P which was bioavailable for plant growth, and then subsequently enhanced plant uptake of P. Through bio-augmentation, the proportion of P removal by plant uptake in B-CW (25.2%) was increased by 2.5 times compared with that of C-CW (7.1%). The outcomes of this study would shed light on intensifying the role of plant uptake in P removal of CWs through bio-augmentation.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Shandong Provincial Key Research and Development Program (Major Scientific and Technological Innovation Project) (No. 2019JZZY010411 & No. 2020CXGC011406), National Science Foundation of China (No. 51878388 & No. 51925803), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2020YQ42), and Future Plan for Young Scholar of Shandong University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 266237, People’s Republic of China

    Ji Mingde, Zhang Jian, Wang Shuo, Liang Shuang & Hu Zhen

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  1. Ji Mingde
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  2. Zhang Jian
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  3. Wang Shuo
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  4. Liang Shuang
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  5. Hu Zhen
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Contributions

Mingde Ji designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the manuscript; Jian Zhang contributed in data collection and visualization; Shuo Wang helped in checking the visualized results and revising the manuscript; Shuang Liang contributed in proofreading and giving valuable comments. This study was done under the supervision of Zhen Hu.

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Correspondence to Hu Zhen.

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Ji, M., Zhang, J., Wang, S. et al. Enhanced phosphorus removal of constructed wetland through plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) addition. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 52124–52132 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14364-w

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