Journal of Emerging Scholarship

Freshwater aquaponics is an agricultural method that utilizes aquatic animal byproducts to provide nutrients to plants, typically utilizing vegetable plants that clean the water as they absorb nutrients. Atlantic horseshoe crabs (HSCs) in the Environmental Center’s aquaculture facility, saltwater organisms, produce significant waste and toxic nitrate increases that require frequent water exchange. To alleviate this problem, salt-tolerant plants were introduced into the system to assess their ability to sequester nitrate and other nutrients. Two Spartina species’ nutrient absorption and salt excretion efficiencies were assessed by tracking nutrient levels in the HSC tank and calculating salt excretion in plant cuttings over time. Previous studies assessed the ability of Spartina spp. to remove nutrients from solid waste or from shrimp aquaculture effluent utilizing a different plant substrate than the one utilized in the current study. Neither study addressed the rate of salt extrusion. In the present study both Spartina species were capable of removing a significant amount of salt, but neither species was found to significantly reduce nitrate accumulation, although ammonia and nitrite levels remained low and stable.