Author(s): Syafiq Shaharuddin, Aminuddin Ab. Ghani, Nor Azazi Zakaria, Wan Maznah Wan Omar
Linked Author(s): Syafiq Shaharuddin
Keywords: Stormwater, water quality, phytoplankton, constructed wetlands, free water surface
Abstract: The impact from stormwater runoff is not only on water quality degradation, but also habitat-destroying, which can cause harm to many wildlife population such as fish and birds, and also can kill the native vegetation. Stormwater runoff issues can also cause eutrophication, when the nutrient concentration flow through the pond system is not well treated. The impact can be severe to the ecosystems, water quality and habitat sustainability. The use of constructed wetland to manage the stormwater runoff is well applicable and prove to be the most efficient and environmental friendly. However, in terms of how the impact of wetland performance to the phytoplankton or algae in the system is not well understand. The reason to understand it is as if the algae or phytoplankton overpopulated, which can cause eutrophication and if it is too low, theoretically it will cause problem to the food chain. Thus, the aim of the study is to understand the relationship of water quality performance to the distribution of phytoplankton in the free water surface (FWS) constructed wetland. The results show that freshwater phytoplankton has significantly negative relationship (p=0. 01) with water quality index (WQI) as well as certain parameters measured such as dissolved oxygen and water temperature. The WQI value showed that the macrophytes zone was low compared to forebay zone and micropool zone. The distribution of phytoplankton was high at macrophytes zone, whereas the wetland plant is expected to contribute high favourable nutrient and other environmental variables for the high abundance of phytoplankton density. Through regression, phyla Chlorophyta shows dominance as well as high R2 value, namely more than 0. 7. The constructed wetland is able to retain the sufficient amount of distribution of freshwater phytoplankton at the outlet zone, micropool, for the source of food for higher trophic level
Year: 2017