Response mechanism of typical wetland plants and removal of water pollutants under different levofloxacin concentration

Abstract Antibiotics are widely found in aquatic environments and pose a serious threat to natural habitats. Plants as an important part of constructed wetlands, phytoremediation is a potential way to purify antibiotic contaminated waters and soils and thus reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance. However, less is known about Response mechanism of typical wetland plants and removal of water pollutants under different levofloxacin concentration Therefore, this study evaluated the effects of the levofloxacin (LOFL) on chlorophyll and key enzyme activities among 8 typical wetland plants. At the same time, the removal of conventional water pollutants by different plant system treated with 0, 10, 1000 ug/L of LOFL was investigated. The results showed that the eight plants showed significant differences in the removal of contaminants as well as chlorophyll and key enzyme activities while the above indicators did not show obvious regularity due to the stress of antibiotics in the same type of plant. The removal rate of LOFL was 87.29-96.69% by plant system while only 0.26 to 5.89% was contributed by plant accumulation. Antibiotic contamination has potential impact on wetland plants and in practical applications, plants should be selected reasonably according to the target pollutants.