Nitrogen Transformation Processes in Constructed Wetlands

The primary objective of this work and the research at the “Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung” was to gain a deeper understanding of the basically transformation processes, especially for nitrogen species, in constructed wetlands. Therefore two different types of laboratory scale model systems, run with two different artificial wastewaters, had been observed for about 4 months. Data about the situation of three nitrogen species (ammonium, nitrate, nitrite), the physical condition of the pore water and the carbon sources contained by the water had been collected and compared. The present work will provide a summary about the actual knowledge of the microbial processes in constructed wetlands and the general character of such constructions. It will explain the different methods used to gain the data which will be later wards discussed with the aid of the created graphs in the final argumentation