Fytogreen’s floating wetlands are highly adaptable systems designed for any water body in need of treatment. These modules provide a rich, fertile environment for plants, with a surface area fully capable of supporting plant growth. This leads to extensive root development, which enhances the system’s effectiveness beyond other available solutions.

As the roots extend through the fibrous structure of the wetlands, they create a vast activated surface area that supports bio-remediation. This process uses microorganisms to eliminate pollutants. UV-sensitive microbes and bacteria attach to the roots and tiny hairs of the plants, secreting sticky extracellular proteins and forming biofilms within the wetland’s fibrous structure. These biofilms capture and break down organic matter and nutrients in stormwater, including total suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand, nitrogen, and phosphorus.

Wetlands bird species are drawn to the edges and surrounds of floating wetlands, to rest and observe for predators, whilst nesting within niches of the densely vegetated interior plantings.

A range of groundcovers, tussocks, forbs and shrubs allow for foliage stratification. This is an ideal combination of growth forms and diversity to create requisite niches to accommodate most wetland fauna and to regulate temperature and humidity.

Vegetated floating wetlands offer protection as well as food sources for fauna, including aquatic species such as fish and amphibians, with root systems of plants extending into the water column, penetrating to varying depths pending species selections. This services multiple temperature and light zones, creating diverse biofilms capable of processing water and feeding a range of micro-fauna including juvenile fish and invertebrates such as shrimp.

Hence, a floating wetland creates a nucleus for spawning and refugia for newly hatched aquatic species, across a diverse range of trophic levels.

Reduced evaporation through by shading of the water body, thereby reducing solar inputs into water, with the resultant reduction of light, reducing algal growth and moderating water temperatures. 

Fytogreen developed the modular system that remains above the waterline when walked on, meaning maintenance is easy. With independent engineering certification, the system is expandable up to greater than 1,000m2 as a vegetated pontoon.

Floating wetlands can be utilized in a variety of water environments, including:

• Urban water bodies: Ponds, lakes, and reservoirs in cities to improve water quality and aesthetics.
  
  
• Stormwater management: Retention and detention basins to treat runoff and reduce pollutants.
  
  
• Agricultural areas: Irrigation ponds and drainage channels to manage nutrient loads and improve water quality.
  
  
• Industrial sites: Wastewater treatment ponds to enhance the removal of contaminants.
  
  
• Natural habitats: Wetlands and marshes to support biodiversity and habitat restoration.
  
  
• Recreational areas: Golf course ponds and park lakes to maintain clean and clear water.

Active floating gardens can be used to moderate water flow, slowing currents, thereby controlling silt deposition in targeted locations, whilst simultaneously establishing habitat, processing water and seeding banks of failing wetlands.

Floating gardens offer support to municipal and government installations on a range of scales, inclusive of newly establishing, remnant and long-term installations

Floating gardens can be utilised as aesthetic treatments for ponds, natural swimming pools and amenity waterways, with a range of native and exotic species.