beemats floating wetlands

Vern Jansen park pond

city of titusville, Florida​

This pond receives stormwater runoff from a large drainage basin, with heavy nutrient loads. We installed 8,756 square feet of floating treatment wetlands in this four-acre pond in 2015.  In response to the high concentrations of bioavailable nitrogen and phosphorus, the plants on the floating wetlands grow rapidly and reach maturity after 4 – 6 months. In an effort to maintain actively growing plants throughout the year, we harvest the biomass by trimming the roots and shoots every four months. The meristematic portions of the plants are left in the aerated pots to regenerate new plant growth. The resulting nutrient harvest from this pond averages 401.14 grams of nitrogen per square meter and 55.42 grams of phosphorus per square meter annually.  Accordingly, we remove about 719.64 pounds of Nitrogen and 99.42 pounds of phosphorus every year. That translates to 5,037.46 pounds of nitrogen and 695.96 pounds of phosphorus over the past seven years that didn’t flow downstream to the Indian River.