Flowers grown floating on polluted waterways might help clear up nutrient runoff

Hands cutting yellow flowers with scissors

Enlarge / The lower flowers may pay for themselves and even flip a revenue. (credit score: Margi Rentis)

Flowers grown on cheap floating platforms might help clear polluted waterways, over 12 weeks extracting 52 p.c extra phosphorus and 36 p.c extra nitrogen than the pure nitrogen cycle removes from untreated water, in response to our new analysis. Along with filtering water, the lower flowers can generate earnings by way of the multibillion-dollar floral market.

In our trials of assorted flowers, large marigolds stood out as essentially the most profitable, producing lengthy, marketable stems and huge blooms. Their yield matched typical flower farm manufacturing.

Why it issues

Water air pollution is triggered largely by runoff from farms, city lawns, and even septic tanks. When it rains, extra phosphorus, nitrogen, and different chemical substances wash into lakes and rivers.

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