Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 4, 2025

Vegetated Treatment Systems for Removing Contaminants Associated with Surface Water Toxicity in Agriculture and Urban Runoff
Published on: May 15, 2017
Efficient nitrogen removal from stormwater runoff by bioretention system: The construction of plant carbon
Haiyan Li1, Zhaoying Liu1, Chaohong Tan1
1Beijing Engineering Research Center of Sustainable Urban Sewage System Construction and Risk Control, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044, China; Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Future Urban Design, Beijing 100044, China.
Abstract:
The plant carbon source and sulfur were selected as the denitrification electron donors and filled in the internal water storage zone (IWSZ) of bioretention system to establish excellent mixotrophic denitrification system, which was beneficial to waste recycling and showed very high nitrate nitrogen removal efficiency (approximately 94%). The ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen, and chemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies could reach 79.41%, 85.89%, and 74.07%, respectively. Mechanism study revealed the synergistic degradation effect was existed between acetic acid released from plant carbon source and the generated sulfate, which improved the S/CH3COOH mediated nitrate nitrogen removal reactions. Autotrophic denitrification occurred mainly in the upper layer of IWSZ, and the dominant bacteria were Thiobacillus. While in the lower layer, the dominant bacteria were mainly related to organic matter utilization and heterotrophic denitrification. The abundance of narG, nirK, nirS, and nosZ functional genes in the upper layer was significantly higher than the lower layers.
Related Concept Videos
Bioremediation
Overview of Nitrogen Metabolism
The largest pool of nitrogen available in the terrestrial ecosystem is gaseous nitrogen (N2) from the air, but this...
Metabolism of Chemolithotrophs
Inorganic Nitrogen Assimilation
Environmental Applications of Microorganisms
The Nitrogen Cycle

