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Heavy metal (HM) contamination resulting from industrialization and urbanization during the Anthropocene along with plant invasion can severely threaten the growth and adaptation of local flora. Invasive alien plant species generally exhibit a growth pattern consistent with their functional traits in non-contaminated environments in the introduced range. However, it remains unclear whether invasive alien plants have an advantage over native plants in contaminated environments and whether this growth pattern is dependent on the adaptation of their leaf functional traits. Here, we selected two congeneric pairs of invasive alien and native grasses that naturally co-exist in China and are commonly found growing in contaminated soil. To evaluate the effect of cadmium (Cd) on the structural and physiological leaf traits, we grew all four species in soil contaminated without or with 80 mg/kg Cd. Invasive plants contained significantly higher concentrations of Cd in all three organs (leaf, stem, and root). They displayed a higher transfer factor and bioconcentration factor (BCF) of shoot and root than natives, indicating that invasive species are potential Cd hyperaccumulators. Invasive plants accumulated polyphenol oxidase (PPO) to higher levels than natives and showed similar patterns of leaf structural and physiological traits in response to changes in Cd bioconcentration. The quantifiable leaf structural traits of invasive plants were significantly greater (except for stomatal density and number of dead leaves) than native plants. Leaf physiological traits, chlorophyll content, and flavonoid content were also significantly higher in invasive plants than in natives under Cd stress conditions after 4 weeks, although nitrogen balance index (NBI) showed no significant difference between the two species. Chlorophyll fluorescence parameters decreased, except for the quantum yield of photosystem II (ΦPSII) and the proportion of open photosystem II (qP), which increased under Cd stress conditions in both species. However, invasive plants exhibited higher fluorescence parameters than natives under Cd stress, and the decrement observed in invasive plants under Cd stress was greater than that in natives. High Cd adaptation of invasive grasses over natives suggests that invasive plants possess optimal leaf structural and physiological traits, which enable them to adapt to stressful conditions and capture resources more quickly than natives. This study further emphasizes the potential invasion of alien plants in contaminated soil environments within the introduced range. To a certain extent, some non-invasive alien plants might adapt to metalliferous environments and serve as hyperaccumulator candidates in phytoremediation projects in contaminated environments. Higher structural and physiological leaf traits in invasive than in native plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing issue of global warming has received tremendous attention from researchers around the world as researchers are actively publishing their findings related to environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, carbon footprint, and air quality. In this bibliometric review, Scopus database was accessed to retrieve publications from 1971 to 2021, related to carbon footprint of buildings which is significantly associated with global warming and air quality. The results suggested that 41% of publications were published in close access journals requiring nominal subscription fee and/or institutional permissions for access to articles. Only 1% of publications were in press for publication, while 99% of them were online available. The trend of publications on carbon footprint has increased after 2002 and is also increasing in recent years as the topic is widely studied in many fields such as environmental sciences, engineering, materials sciences, earth and planetary sciences, chemical engineering, and energy. Approximately 97% publications were peer-reviewed journal articles. The authors, i.e., Aresta, M., Lin, T.P., and Persily, A.K., published highest number of publications among all on topic of carbon footprint. However, other authors, i.e., Cai, W., Chen, Z., Ma, M. Paik, I., and Pomponi, F., have published two publications each on carbon footprint of buildings. The funding for research on carbon footprint of buildings is mainly received from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Tianjin University. However, the National Taiwan University, George Mason University, and Universita degi Studi di Bari hold 3% share in total number of publications on carbon footprint of buildings. As China and the USA are countries with highest share in global carbon footprint, both countries also have highest contribution in research on carbon footprint, followed by South Korea, the UK, Japan, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, etc. The study also concluded that, due to its wider readability and understanding, most of the publications were in the English language., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)