Principais espécies de macrófitas aquáticas utilizadas no tratamento de esgoto sanitário

Abstract

Due to increasing urban population, there is also the increase of sewage generation, and, consequently, the increasing of the human health risks due the inefficient sewage treatment. Furthermore, the indicators of the sanitation system reflect the health of population. Thus, it is necessary the research about alternative treatments that help feed the generated demand. The new form of treatments would benefit isolated populations that many times do not have access to conventional effluents treatment. Several kinds of alternative treatments has been proposed, like the use of biofilters or lakes with species of aquatic macrophytes. This paper aimed to identify the main species of aquatic macrophytes used in the treatment of the domestic effluents. The methodology used consists in a bibliometric research, delimited by specific keywords and was carried in the indexers Web of Science and Scielo. After that, the studies under search criteria was tabulated. Among the studies found, were identified 70 species distributed in 53 genera, being the specie Eicchornia crassipes the most frequently used, followed by Phragmites australis and Pistia stratiotes, respectively. The most used genera were Eicchornia and Phragmites. The amount of studies has raised year by year, with most of them carried in India. The treatment using aquatic macrophytes is carried mainly in constructed wetlands, adopting different types of hydrologic systems. A common characteristic between three of four genera most used is that there are cases showing invader species. Thus, these species show a higher capacity of resistance regarding the stress generated by environment where they are, which would contribute to their success in the effluent treatment. This treatment represents a viable option as auxiliar treatment for effluent in big towns.,Moreover, it seems to be viable for small communities, besides an effectivemonitoring system is required to verify the efficiency of the system.