The Effect of Egeria densa on levels of Nitrate in Water

The purpose of this research was to discover whether Egeria densa (E. densa) could be used for the removal of nitrate from drinking water. It was hypothesized that E. densa is equally effective in filtering nitrate from water, irrespective of the initial nitrate concentration. The researcher gathered 50 E.densa plants and placed them into labeled plastic cups belonging to one of three groups. One experimental group, a control group, CG0, had 2 experimental units each of which had one E.densa plant in a plastic container with 200 milliliters (ml) of distilled water with no nitrate fertilizer. The second experimental group, EG142, had twenty-four experimental units to which 1.42 grams of nitrate fertilizer were dissolved in 200 ml of distilled water. The third experimental group, EG284, was like the EG142 group except with double the amount of fertilizer at 2.84 grams. The plants had constant exposure to light and were also left in the solution with fertilizer for nine days. Parts per million (ppm) concentrations were recorded daily (except for the two weekend days). It was concluded that E. densa reduced the amount of nitrate from the water by between 8% and 30%. A One-Way ANOVA statistical analysis showed that the rate of reduction of nitrate from the water is higher for lower initial nitrate concentrations. A post hoc Tukey-Kramer test showed that the means for the three groups were statistically significantly different, with the largest difference between EG284 and CG0 and smallest between EG142 and EG284. It was concluded that the nitrate concentration did decrease after E. densa was implemented