Journal of Emerging Scholarship

Nutrient-dense runoff and eutrophication are causing widespread harm to the Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem. A solution is needed, or the problem will continue to worsen, putting more species in danger. Mycofiltration has been highlighted as an effective method for filtering heavy metals in contaminated drinking water. This study sought to design a mycofiltration system and determine if mycofiltration could also act as an effective technique for filtering nitrogen and phosphorus from contaminated runoff. If effective, mycelium could provide an affordable, scalable, and compostable solution to help manage nutrient pollution and eutrophication. This study involved designing and testing an experimental setup to filter solutions through mycelium and measure nutrient concentrations before and after filtering. This was accomplished by pouring nutrient-dense solutions through tubes of Pleurotus ostreatus mycelia and using spectrophotometry to measure absorbance. The results from this trial were ultimately inconclusive and justify running the experiment again with a few modifications. This would help determine conclusive results and add valuable information about whether or not mycofiltration is a technology worth
exploring for phosphorus and nitrogen pollution control.