Celebrating national threatened species day

Um, so [laughs] this article entitled Floating Wetlands Boost Water Quality/Greenhouse Emissions, uh, was published in Science.

And it came across my desk, like literally came across my desk on my team's group chat at work.

[laughs] So-

That is incredible.

Um-

So good

... no, genuinely.

I was like, "Wow, that is so cool." It basically describes a trial in which researchers installed these man-made floating wetlands in Australian wastewater lagoons and they basically tested whether these could improve the water quality and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

And this is a huge deal because wastewater treatment contributes, uh, about 1.6% of greenhouse gas emissions, like anthropogenic ones globally.

And part of the reason is because the outputs from wastewaters are very nutrient-rich and they create conditions for microbes to release gases like methane and CO2.

The trial was run by RMIT University, Westernport Water, and CSIRO at a wastewater lagoon on Phillip Island in Victoria.

So the floating wetland that they, um, used to test it was about the size of one and a half tennis courts, so pretty decent but not huge.

And it was planted with all native reeds and sedges.

And the plant roots hung down into the wastewater and created a really good habitat for microbial communities.

And the results were really strong.

So compared with a control lagoon without the wetlands, CO2 emissions reduced by up to 36%, methane reduced by up to 66%, and nitrogen reduced by 18%.

And these reductions became detectable after just four months.

So-

That is-

... really strong results

... that is insane.

That is incredible.

I love this idea.

Uh, this is a genius idea.

I know, right?