ROOT EXUDATES OF WETLAND PLANTS INFLUENCED BY NUTRIENT STATUS AND TYPES OF PLANT CULTIVATION

Abstract

The present study investigated the amounts of root exudates and composition of organic acids released from two wetland plants (Typha latifolia and Vetiver zizanioides) under two nutrient treatments: low level (0.786 mM N and 0.032 mM P) and high level (7.86 mM N and 0.32 mM P) and two types of plant cultivation: monoculture and co-culture of the two plants. Low nutrient treatment significantly (p < 0.05) increased the root exudates of T. latifolia during the initial growth period (1–21 d) and those of V. zizanioides and the co-culture during the whole growth period. The concentrations of dissolved organic carbon in the root exudates of the co-culture in the low nutrient treatment were 3.23–7.91 times of those in the high nutrient treatment during the medium growth period (7–28 d). The compositions of organic acids varied between the two plant species and between the two nutrient treatments. The pattern of organic acids was also different between the co-culture and the monoculture. Oxalic acid was by far the major organic acid exuded from the two wetland plants. The present study on root exudates suggests that co-culture of wetland plant species would be more useful in the reclamation of waste water than a monoculture system.

KEY WORDS:

• root exudates
• organic acids
• nutrient status
• plant cultivation
• wetland plants

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We sincerely thank Dr. A.O.W. Leung (Hong Kong Baptist University) for improving the manuscript. The study was supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (CITYU/AOE/03-04/02) and the Hong Kong Baptist University (RC/AOE/08-09/01).