Natural Ponds Remove Nitrogen More Effectively Than Stormwater Ponds, Researchers Find

Summer brings daily storms in the Sunshine State; with the rain, you need to control flooding in some neighborhoods. Florida is swimming in 76,000 stormwater ponds.

While stormwater ponds are designed to control flooding, new research from the University of Florida shows that they are less effective than natural ponds at removing nitrogen, a pollutant that can flow downstream into lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water.

Audrey Goeckner, who is earning her Ph.D. from the UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences this summer, led the new study under the supervision of AJ Reisinger, an assistant professor at UF/IFAS. They measured the amount of dinitrogen gas dissolved in ponds. Dinitrogen makes up 80% of the atmosphere, and the amount dissolved in a pond can be used to understand the balance of two competing nitrogen cycling processes: denitrification and nitrogen fixation.

This research supports the concept that stormwater ponds should be recognized as ecosystems that support a range of processes that alter elemental cycles. They’re not just inert bowls of water for stormwater sediments to settle, Goeckner said.

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