ecological engineering 35 ( 2 0 0 9 ) 258–264 available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoleng Dynamics of Typha latifolia L. populations in treatment wetlands in Estonia Martin Maddison a,∗ , Tõnu Mauring a,b , Kalle Remm a , Merje Lesta a , Ülo Mander a a Department of Geography, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 46 Vanemuise Street, Tartu 51014, Estonia b Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, 1 Nooruse Street, Tartu 50411, Estonia article info Article history: Received 10 December 2007 Received in revised form 10 June 2008 Accepted 10 June 2008 Keywords: Assimilation Biomass production Broadleaved cattail Nitrogen Phosphorus Wastewater treatment abstract The aim of this paper is to evaluate and compare broadleaved cattail (Typha latifolia L.) biomass production and the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content in phytomass in three treatment wetland systems and to propose suitable areas for treatment wetlands in Esto- nia for raw material production. The biomass samples (roots/rhizomes, shoots with leaves and spadixes) and litter were collected from 1 m × 1 m plots—15 plots in the Tänassilma semi-natural wetland, 15 plots in the Põltsamaa free water surface (FWS) constructed wet- land (CW), and 10 plots in the Häädemeeste FWS CW. The average aboveground biomass of T. latifolia varied from 0.37 to 1.76 kg DW m -2 in autumn and from 0.33 to 1.38 kg DW m -2 in win- ter. The greatest average nitrogen (22,950 mg N kg -1 ) concentration was found in spadixes in 2002, and the phosphorus (6500 mg P kg -1 ) concentration was measured in roots–rhizomes in 2003. Average standing stock of nitrogen and phosphorus was higher in aboveground than belowground phytomass. In FWS CWs with high hydraulic and nutrient loadings, however, the harvesting of aboveground biomass is not an effective means for the removal of nutri- ents. Cattail biomass is a valuable insulation material, whereas the fibre from spadixes mixed with clay gives elasticity to clay plasters. According to our estimates, about 5412 km 2 could be used for Typha cultivation in Estonia. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Constructed wetlands are widely used for wastewater treat- ment throughout the world. These systems can also be used for raw material production. Cattails are very often a part of natural and constructed treatment wetland ecosystems (Kadlec and Knight, 1996; Vymazal, 2007). Cattail has been planted in constructed wet- lands for primary and/or secondary treatment of domestic and industrial sewage (Ennabili et al., 1998; Shannon et al., 2000; Mander et al., 2001a; Lim et al., 2003; Solano et al., 2004; Toet et al., 2005; Álvarez and Bécares, 2006), industrial wastewater (Maine et al., 2006; Ye et al., 2001), runoff from ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +372 7375 816; fax: +372 7375 825. E-mail address: martin.maddison@ut.ee (M. Maddison). agricultural irrigation systems (Ray and Inouye, 2007) and agri- cultural drainage (Borin and Tocchetto, 2007), wastewater from a tannery (Calheiros et al., 2007), farms (Hunt et al., 2003), dairy (Newman and Clausen, 1997; Gottschall et al., 2007), fish farms (Maltais-Landry et al., 2007), landfill (Maehlum, 1995; Bulc, 2006), woodwaste (Masbough et al., 2005), contaminated groundwater from industrial areas (Machate et al., 1999) and mining (Mitsch and Wise, 1998; Lee and Bukaveckas, 2002), as well as urban runoff (Scholz and Xu, 2002). Free water surface (FWS) wetlands covered by cattails can be considered to be valuable biotopes supporting biodiver- sity (Lacki et al., 1991; Kadlec and Knight, 1996; Wild et al., 2001). 0925-8574/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2008.06.003