The capacity of native saltmarsh halophytes to remove salt from saline wastewater discharge – an experimental assessment of salt uptake mechanisms in common Australian saltmarsh chenopods.

Final report on the Australian Flora Foundation funded project:

There will be no Final Report for the project:

This project included a greenhouse experiment where chenopods were grown under a range of soil salinity conditions and a practical test of whether chenopods could be grown in constructed “marine” beds associated with a desalination plant in the Brisbane Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens. A number of extreme weather events and other unforseen impediments resulted in this project being abandoned. Extremely high temperatures caused high mortality in the greenhouse experiment. Following this, South East Queensland suffered extremely high rainfall which resulted in the mortality of the plants established in the marine beds. The land on which the marine beds were situated was reclaimed for the construction of a tunnel for the western freeway.

Catherine Lovelock
Professor
The School of Biological Sciences
The University of Queensland
St Lucia QLD 4072
AUSTRALIA