In this literature review the characteristics of two free-floating Macrophytes, water hyacinth   (Eichhornia crassipes) and duckweed (Lemna sp.), and two microalgae, Chlorella and Scenedesmus, have been examined regarding their suitability as efficient nutrient removers in the treatment of wastewater with high levels of nutrients and suspended solids from a biogas plant in Loudden. The needs required for the plants to be able to grow in wastewater and the amounts of biomass they can produce have also been studied. The results show that Chlorella is capable of a very high uptake of nutrients in photobioreactors with high nutrient loadings. With an ammonia uptake maximum value at 10900mg/m2/d Chlorella outshines the other organisms in this study. The test organism that performed the closest to Chlorella in terms of nitrogen uptake was water hyacinth with an uptake about 1602mg/m2/d.

According to the Water Framework Directive of the European Union, Macrophytes should be used as indicators in the ecological and environmental monitoring of lakes. In the member state Sweden the Environmental Protection Agency has elaborated assessment criteria for determining lake status based on Macrophytes. The main focus of this thesis is to evaluate the efficiency of the assessment criteria for Macrophytes. In addition the concordance between the ecological status classes of the four quality factors included was analysed.The assessment criteria for Macrophytes are based on the total phosphorus preference of the respective species. The focus is thus mainly on the nutrient level of the investigated lakes and the environmental problem monitored is eutrophication.

The aim of the study was to investigate if methane emission in a constructed wetland changed in a diurnal pattern correlating to temperature, humidity or light conditions. The gas measurements were carried out with a static chamber technique. The wetland (in Nykvarn outside of Linköping, Sweden) takes care of wastewater to reduce the nitrogen loads. Measurements were carried out at three different occasions in the summer of 1998 on two sites in the wetland. One site was close to the inflow, inhabited by Lemnaceae, and another site was located further downstream inhabited by the emergent macrophyte Typha latifolia.

Modern forestry requires a high degree of machine traffic for clear felling and scarification operations. The machines most frequently used are big and the traffic often results in tracks on the forest ground. There are many small streams running through a forest, in connection to logging operations, machines might cross these frequently. These crossings could result in the erosion of fine particulate inorganic matter, which ends up in the stream. The aim of this thesis was to give a general description of small forest streams of order-one in the county of Värmland and to determine the frequency of machine tracks in small streams.