Application and performance of eco-bag revetment for water purification in lake environments: a case study from rural China

Intense agricultural activities and pollutants from different man-made sources directly pollute rural lake water. The main aim of this study is to ascertain the water purification effect of a revetment constructed of eco-bags on a rural lake located in Jidong village, Jiangsu province, China. During the test period of 22 weeks, the microbial biomass increased from 0.089 +/- 0.055 x 10(9) to 3.83 +/- 1.02 x 10(9) cell.cm(-2). In terms of the composition ratio, Proteobacteria, Nitrospirae and Firmicutes in the eco-bags accounted for 68.7, 9.5 and 10.1%, respectively. The growth of microbial population in the eco-bags and the growth of plants in the grass belt played a major role in the removal of pollutants. The chemical oxygen demand (COD), NH3-N, total nitogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and total suspended solids (TSS) removal efficiencies in the lake water were 43.9, 17.9, 43, 25.9 and 74.5%, respectively, while the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration increased from 1.85 +/- 0.42 to 2.93 +/- 0.46 mg.L-1 during the 22 week test period.