The removal of emerging contaminants is plant species dependent in a submerged natural biofiltration

Organic micropollutants (OMPs) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) had the substantial negative impact on the health of environment and human beings. Submerged-vegetated biofiltration is capable of removing massive contaminants but seldom regarding the OMPs and ARGs removal. The effect of different plant species and roles of microbes on mitigating these two were still unveiled. In this study, we compared four different native ornamental species for their effectiveness to remove the five different OMPs and two dissimilar ARGs in submerged-vegetated biofiltrations. The purple fountain grass (P4) exhibited the best performance in removing OMPs. In contract, the Vinca rosea (P3) demonstrated the least capacity to minimize the OMPs. P4 exhibited a substantial proliferation of the ARGs and one mobile genetic element (MGE). P4 and P3 showed a significant difference in overall environmental factors compared to the other columns, but with two extremes. The co-occurrence network and Zi-Pi plots demonstrated the most robust, well connected, and complex microbial community was present in P4, but the worst in P3. The highest cell counts were present in P4, however, the lowest were in P3. P4 exhibited the highest diversity and richness, along with increase in potential antibiotic resistance bacteria (ARBs). The OMPs from all vegetated columns were significantly negative correlated with the relative abundances of four unique taxa (potential degrading bacteria), while the ARGs were significantly positive correlated with the ARBs. Mantel test correlation further revealed the occurrence of the ARGs, OMPs and distribution of microbial community were substantially correlated with the environmental factors. The indirect drivers of abiotic factors, and the direct drivers of biotic factors contributed to substantial OMPs removal and ARGs proliferation in P4. The study provides the evidences for the design and management of the vegetated biofiltration system for phytoremediation of the water contaminated by the emerging