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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Effects of Elevated [CO2] on Photosynthetic
Performance and Water Use Efficiency of
Maize (Zea mays L.) under Cadmium Stress
1
School of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, Hebei, China
2
Xingtai Academy of Agricultural Science, Xingtai, Hebei, China
3
School of Landscape and Ecological Engineering, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, Hebei, China
Submission date: 2025-09-01
Final revision date: 2025-12-11
Acceptance date: 2025-12-28
Online publication date: 2026-03-30
Corresponding author
Lihua Hao
School of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, Hebei, China
School of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, Hebei, China
Yunpu Zheng
School of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, Hebei, China
School of Water Conservancy and Hydropower, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, Hebei, China
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The responses of maize plants to rising atmospheric concentration ([CO2]) and cadmium (Cd) stress
are crucial for accurately estimating corn production under future climate change. Here, we investigated
the effects of CO2 enrichment on leaf photosynthesis and water use efficiency of maize grown under
four levels of Cd stress. We found that the net photosynthetic rates of maize plants at control and mild
Cd stress were substantially increased by elevated [CO2], which indicated a strong CO2 fertilization
effect on maize plants. However, this CO2 fertilization effect on leaf photosynthesis disappeared when
maize plants were subjected to moderate and severe Cd stress. The down-regulation of the high [CO2]
fertilization effect on leaf photosynthesis by Cd stress was primarily driven by reduced stomatal
diffusional efficiency. This decline in stomatal diffusional efficiency was further caused by decreased
regularity in stomatal distribution patterns under Cd stress. Moreover, the down-regulation of these
positive fertilization effects was associated with decreases in photosynthetic pigments and peroxidase
activity, which might also contribute to the down-regulation of the CO2 fertilization effect. In addition,
our results also showed that elevated [CO2] enhanced the leaf-level intrinsic water-use efficiency
(WUEI). Overall, our results demonstrated that Cd stress dampens the positive fertilization effect of
leaf photosynthesis to elevated [CO2] by altering stomatal distribution, photosynthetic pigments, and
antioxidant enzyme activity. Therefore, our results suggest that current ecological-process models based
on earlier results from doubling CO2 experiments may overestimate the positive effects of elevated [CO2],
and meanwhile underestimate the risk of global change on maize yield and agricultural production.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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