In my research, I have found that nutrient pollution is one of the most prominent problems in America. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus can lead to eutrophication and algal blooms. A source of this nutrient pollution is lawn fertilizers that add nitrates and phosphates to the ecosystem. My project serves to contribute to the measures being taken to effectively reduce nutrient pollution in water and soil by phytoremediation, the removal of pollutants by the natural capabilities of plants. Rather than merely increasing it by using lawn fertilizers and adding to the nutrient pollution, my project involves creating an organic fertilizer as a way to recycle the nitrogen and phosphorus in our environment.

My hypothesis is that when the P. Stratiotes plant is placed in nitrogen and phosphorus polluted water, an uptake of nitrogen and phosphorus by water lettuce will be observed and the remaining water will have observably less nutrient pollution as compared to its initial amounts. The more the nitrates and phosphates in the water, the more nutrient uptake will be observed by the P. stratiotes. Romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa) plants grown in soils treated with the organic mulch fertilizer will show greater growth in biomass than romaine lettuce grown in regular soil. As compared to commercial fertilizers, the mulch might not be as effective but will have less difference in growth than plants grown with commercial fertilizers compared to those grown in normal soil.

! performed my experiment by growing my water lettuce plants in deionized water with different levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. I had three different settings with high, moderate, and relatively small amounts of nitrates and phosphates. My controls include the temperature, light exposure, amount of Dl water, and the data collection periods. I measured the levels of nitrate and phosphate uptake by ppms.

I observed that the group with the most nitrates and phosphates saw the most uptake in nutrients. My second experimental group followed, then, the group with the least amount of nitrates and phosphates showed the least uptake in nitrates and phosphates. The difference between the three data groups is shown to be statistically significant using ANOVA.

I mulched the water lettuce plants that showed to have the most nitrate and phosphate uptake to use as organic mulch fertilizer. My results show that plants treated with the organic mulch fertilizer had the most growth in both height and biomass compared to commercial fertilizer as well as the control group. Although my data is not statistically significant, this shows that organic mulch fertilizer will allow for the efficient recycling of nitrates and phosphates in the ecosystem.

Future studies that can be executed in this field would be to test the differences in the growth of romaine lettuce, or any other plant, depending on the amount of nutrients the water lettuce plants has taken up.