Growth of water hyacinth in municipal landfill leachate with different pH.

Batch experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of municipal landfill leachate pH on the growth of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). These experiments were carried out in a green house environment on leachate samples collected from Essex-Windsor Regional Landfill, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It was found that water hyacinth plants survived in a pH range of 4.0 to 8.0. Both alkaline pH (above 8.0) and highly acidic pH (below 4.0) had inhibitory effect on the growth of plants. The pH range, for optimum growth of the water hyacinth plants was found to be 5.8 to 6.0. At optimum growth, water hyacinth had an average mean relative growth rate of 0.043 d-1. It was found that nitrogen compounds underwent different transformations depending on the pH of leachate. Plant uptake, nitrification and volatilization were among these transformations.