[Study on nitrogen cycling and transformations in a duckweed pond by means of modeling analysis]

Based on the simulated results from N cycling and transformation model of duckweed pond, the influences of different major transfer pathways on various nitrogen removal performances are investigated. The effects of seasonal variations of water conditions on nitrogen transformations are determined. The simulated results show that nitrification and denitrification were the major removal pathways for nitrogen in duckweed pond, and the removal contributions of organic nitrogen sedimentation and ammonia volatilization for total nitrogen removal were less than 2.1%. Furthermore, in duckweed pond, nitrification and denitrification decided the removal efficiencies of ammonia and NOx., respectively; both algae decaying and organic nitrogen ammonification controlled primarily the organic nitrogen removal performances; both organic nitrogen sedimentation and mineralization of sedimentary nitrogen determined the variations of sedimentary nitrogen. Duckweed pond with duckweed growing largely can increase sharply algae mortality and keep the low content of algae in effluent. Besides, through accelerating the nitrification and denitrification rate, duckweed can evidently improve the removal efficiencies of total nitrogen.