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Comparative Responses of Invasive and Native Plant Species to Combined Cd and Microplastic Pollution
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When soils contain both heavy metal pollution (cadmium) and microplastics from "biodegradable" plastics, plants struggle more than with either pollutant alone, but an invasive weed handled the combined stress better than a native plant did, thanks to stronger natural defenses against cell damage. This matters because as these pollutants build up together in farm soils, they could not only shift which plants thrive (potentially favoring invasive species) but also affect how well food crops grow and absorb contaminants, which has downstream implications for the food we eat.
ABSTRACT The co‐occurrence of heavy metal contamination and biodegradable microplastic (polylactic acid, PLA) pollution poses increasing risks to terrestrial plant communities and soil functioning, yet species‐specific responses to combined stress remain poorly understood. Cd and microplastics frequently co‐occur in agricultural soils, where microplastics can alter cadmium mobility, bioavailability, and transport pathways, potentially modifying metal toxicity and plant stress responses compared with single‐pollutant exposure. We investigated the responses of the invasive Bidens pilosa and the native Solanum nigrum grown in monoculture and mixed culture under combined cadmium (Cd) and biodegradable microplastic (PLA) stress by integrating plant growth, photosynthetic performance, oxidative physiology, and rhizosphere biochemical processes. Combined Cd–MP exposure markedly reduced plant growth, chlorophyll content (SPAD), photosystem II efficiency (Fv/Fm), nitrogen accumulation, biomass production, and rhizosphere enzyme activities associated with carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling. However, B. pilosa maintained greater physiological stability under stress, characterized by higher antioxidant enzyme activities (SOD, CAT, POD), lower reactive oxygen species (H 2 O 2 , O 2 ˙ − ) accumulation, and reduced lipid peroxidation (MDA), whereas S. nigrum exhibited stronger oxidative damage and functional impairment. Multivariate analyses further revealed that root antioxidant capacity was closely associated with rhizosphere microbial enzyme activity, suggesting a root‐centered regulatory mechanism linking plant stress tolerance to soil functioning. Overall, the invasive species showed greater tolerance to combined contamination and maintained relatively higher rhizosphere functional activity than the native species, indicating that multi‐pollutant stress may alter competitive interactions between invasive and native plants in contaminated environments.
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