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Variation in dry grassland communities along a heavy metals gradient.

ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to investigate the variation in plant communities growing on metal-enriched sites created by historical Zn–Pb mining. The study sites were 65 small heaps of waste rock covered by grassland vegetation and scattered mostly over agricultural land of southern Poland. The sites were described in terms of plant coverage, species richness and composition, and the composition of plant traits. They were classified using phytosociological methods and detrended correspondence analysis. Identified plant communities were compared for vegetation parameters and habitat properties (soil characteristics, distance from the forest) by analysis of variance. The variation in plant community parameters was explained by multiple regression, in which the predictors were properties of the habitat selected on the basis of factor analysis. Grasslands that developed at low and high concentrations of heavy metals in soil were similar to some extent: they were composed on average of 17–20 species (per 4 m(2)), and their total coverage exceeded 90%. The species composition changed substantially with increasing contamination with heavy metals; metal-sensitive species withdrew, while the metal-tolerant became more abundant. Other important predictors of community structure were: proximity to the forest (responsible for the encroachment of competitive forest species and ruderals), and the thickness of the surface soil (shallow soil favored the formation of the heavy metal grassland). The heavy metal grassland was closely related to the dry calcareous grasslands. The former was an earlier succession stage of the latter at low contamination with heavy metals.

SUBMITTER: Woch MW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4722054 | biostudies-other | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:Backgrounds and aimsEchinacea angustifolia is a widespread species distributed throughout the Great Plains region of North America. Genetic differentiation among populations was investigated along a 1500 km north-south climatic gradient in North America, a region with no major geographical barriers. The objective of the study was to determine if genetic differentiation of populations could be explained by an isolation-by-distance model or by associations with climatic parameters known to affect plant growth and survival.MethodsHistorical climatic data were used to define the nature of the climatic gradient and AFLP markers were used to establish patterns of population genetic differentiation among ten Echinacea populations collected from North Dakota to Oklahoma. A total of 1290 fragments were scored using six EcoRI/MseI and three PstI/MseI primer combinations. Assessment of the correlation between climatic, genetic and geographic distances was assessed by Mantel and partial Mantel tests.Key resultsPstI/MseI combinations produced significantly fewer fragments, but a larger percentage was unique compared with EcoRI/MseI markers. Using estimates of F(ST), populations in Oklahoma and southern Kansas were identified as the most divergent from the other populations. Both the neighbour-joining tree and principal co-ordinate analysis clustered the populations in a north-south spatial orientation. About 60% of the genetic variation was found within populations, 20% among populations and the remaining 20% was partitioned among groups that were defined by the topology of the neighbour-joining tree. Significant support was found for the isolation-by-distance model independent of the effects of annual mean precipitation, but not from annual mean temperature and freeze-free days.ConclusionsEchinacea angustifolia populations exhibit genetic divergence along a north-south climatic gradient. The data support an isolation-by-distance restriction in gene flow that is independent of annual mean precipitation.

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Variation in dry grassland communities along a heavy metals gradient.

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