Effects of Elevated CO2 on Growth and Nutrient Uptake of Eichhornia crassipe Under Four Different Nutrient Levels

Although the climate change effects on plants have been a focus for more than two decades, such effects on aquatic species remain largely unknown. To evaluate the potential effects of elevated CO2 on growth and nutrient uptake of Eichhornia crassipe Solms (commonly known as water hyacinth, the world’s most significant invasive aquatic weed), plants were grown at two CO2 concentrations (380 and 800 ppm) combined with four nutrient levels (oligo-, meso-, eu-, and hypertrophic) for 2 months. Overall, elevated CO2 consistently enhanced plant growth at all nutrient levels, indicating more infestations of water hyacinth in future natural eutrophic waters. Moreover, the enhancement extent varied among nutrient availabilities, being more in eu- and hypertrophic levels and less in meso- and oligotrophic levels. Furthermore, the CO2 enrichment-deduced assimilation was allocated more to plant roots than shoots which would improve the nutrient absorption capacity and mostly transferred to offspring ramets rather than maintained at the mother ramet which would benefit the vegetative reproduction. Finally, under elevated CO2, although the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contents of E. crassipe slightly decreased which might mean increased difficulties in preventing its infestation by reducing N and/or P in eutrophic waters, the total N and P accumulation increased suggesting higher bioremediation efficiency of using water hyacinth for water eutrophication.