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Cadmium interacts with nitrogen level and nitrogen form to affect the growth of an invasive plant Alternanthera philoxeroides

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Abstract

Both heavy metal pollution and plant invasion are serious global environmental problems. Nutrient availability has been shown to influence the performance of invasive plants in heavy metal polluted environments. However, it is still unclear whether the effects of nutrients differ between different forms. We conducted a greenhouse experiment to test the effects of cadmium (0.5, 1 and 2 mg L−1) and nitrogen concentration (0.5, 2 and 8 mmol L−1) as well as nitrogen form (ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen and glycine) on the invasive, widespread plant Alternanthera philoxeroides. Cadmium did not affect the overall growth of Alternanthera philoxeroides. In the presence of cadmium, plants grew better when provided with nitrate nitrogen than with ammonia nitrogen or glycine. Cadmium interacted with nitrogen level and nitrogen form to affect the growth. At medium (1 mg L−1) and high (2 mg L−1) cadmium levels, promotion of high level nitrate nitrogen (8 mmol L−1) on plant growth was significantly reduced. Our results suggest that the growth performance of Alternanthera philoxeroides in cadmium polluted water is related to both nitrogen level and form. These findings could provide a basis for predicting the spread of Alternanthera philoxeroides in polluted water.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 32101264) and Science and Technology Project of Hebei Education Department (ZC2021012).

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Author notes

  1. Dan Li and Xiao-Gai Wang have equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Science and Engineering, Handan University, Handan, 056005, China

    Dan Li, Xiao-Gai Wang, Jia-Xin Yang, Yu-Fei Hu, Wen-Yue Lyu, Jun-Cai Xin, Rui Zhang & Chao Si

  2. School of Special Education, Handan University, Handan, 056005, China

    Zhi-Huan Chen

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  1. Dan Li
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Contributions

DL: Formal analysis, Writing—Original Draft. Writing—Review & Editing. XGW: Formal analysis, Writing—Original Draft, Writing–Review & Editing. JXY: Investigation, Writing—Original Draft. YFH: Investigation, Writing—Original Draft. WYL: Investigation, Writing—Original Draft. JCX: Investigation, Writing—Original Draft. RZ: Investigation, Writing—Original Draft. ZHC: Investigation, Writing–Review & Editing. CS: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing–Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing, Supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chao Si.

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Li, D., Wang, XG., Yang, JX. et al. Cadmium interacts with nitrogen level and nitrogen form to affect the growth of an invasive plant Alternanthera philoxeroides. Aquat Ecol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-023-10065-3

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