| his study was undertaken as a part of tier III project grant entitled "To develop experimental and field scale protocols for evaluating in-situ bioremediation strategies for crude oil spilled on tidal marsh wetlands".;Design included selecting size of microcosm, incorporating hydrological and soil features of wetland environment etc. A closed system was simulated for the purpose of monitoring nutrient dynamics, keeping oil within the microcosm and conserving water by recycling it through the system. The system consisted of the microcosm, reservoir, peristaltic pumps, hoses, weir, outflow tube, multidepth redox probes, gaseous oxygen diffusion chambers, computer and gravity outflow reservoir. Fresh seawater was daily introduced into the microcosm reservoir in amount equivalent to the daily gravity flow through the microcosm ecosystem. The microcosm system incorporated a regularly flooded hydroperiod with a microtide.;The microcosm simulation of intertidal marsh wetland met the criteria of hydric soils. Measured microcosm redox values generally concurred with findings in literature specific to wetlands. Soil oxygen content was found to be more variable than redox. Ferrous iron detection tests generally conformed to the wetlands subsurface characteristics. The redox data corroborates the iron tests findings (Redox... |
