Plants that have evolved to survive on metal-rich soilsmetallophytes-have key values that must drive research of their unique properties and ultimately their conservation. The ability of metallophytes to tolerate extreme metal concentrations commends them for revegetation of mines and metal-contaminated sites. Metallophytes can also be exploited in environmental technologies, for example, phytostabilization, phytoremediation, and phytomining. Actions towards conserving metallophyte species are imperative, as metallophytes are increasingly under threat of extinction from mining activity. Although many hundreds of papers describe both the biology and applications of metallophytes, few have investigated the urgent need to conserve these unique species. This paper identifies the current state of metallophyte research, and advocates future research needs for the conservation of metallophyte biodiversity and the sustainable uses of metallophyte species in restoration, rehabilitation, contaminated site remediation, and other nascent phytotechnologies. Six fundamental questions are addressed: (1) Is enough known about the global status of metallophytes to ensure their conservation? (2) Are metallophytes threatened by the activities of the minerals industry, and can their potential for the restoration or rehabilitation of mined and disturbed land be realized? (3) What problems exist in gaining prior informed consent to access metallophyte genetic resources and how can the benefits arising from their uses be equitably shared? (4) What potential do metallophytes offer as a resource base for phytotechnologies? (5) Can genetic modification be used to ''design'' metallophytes to use in the remediation of contaminated land? (6) Does the prospect of using metallophytes in site remediation and restoration raise ethical issues?

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Wildfires resulting from thunderstorms are common in some Mediterranean-climate regions, such as southern California, and have played an important role in the ecology and evolution of the flora. Mediterranean-climate regions are major centers for human population and thus anthropogenic impacts on fire regimes may have important consequences on these plant formations. However, changes in fire regimes may have different impacts on Mediterranean type-ecosystems depending on the capability of plants to respond to such perturbations. Therefore, we compare here fire regimes and vegetation responses of two Mediterraneanclimate regions which differ in wildfire regimes and history of human occupation, the central zone of Chile (matorral) and the southern area of California in United States (chaparral). In Chile almost all fires result from anthropogenic activities, whereas lightning fires resulting from thunderstorms are frequent in California. In both regions fires are more frequent in summer, due to high accumulation of dry plant biomass for ignition. Humans have markedly increased fires frequency both in the matorral and chaparral, but extent of burned areas has remained unaltered, probably due to better fire suppression actions and a decline in the built-up of dry plant fuel associated to increased landscape fragmentation with less flammable agricultural and urban developments. As expected, post-fire plant regeneration responses differs between the matorral and chaparral due to differences in the importance of wildfires as a natural evolutionary force in the system. Plants from the chaparral show a broader range of post-fire regeneration responses than the matorral, from basal resprouting, to lignotuber resprouting, and to fire-stimulated germination and flowering with fire-specific clues such as heat shock, chemicals from smoke or charred wood. Plants from the matorral have some resprouting capabilities after fire, but these probably evolved from other environmental pressures, such as severe and long summer droughts, herbivory, and volcanism. Although both Mediterranean-type ecosystems have shown to be resilient to anthropogenic fires, increasing fire frequency may be an important factor that needs to be considered as it may result in strong negative effects on plant successional trends and on plant diversity.

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A one-year greenhouse experiment was conducted to study the transfer of copper from contaminated agricultural soils to edible and nonedible structures of lettuce, tomato, and onion plants. Study soils were selected from two basins of central Chile (Santiago and Cachapoal) to represent two similar total soil copper gradients with different pH values. Results showed that free ionic Cu and Cu in saturation extracts were very low in comparison to total Cu contents of study soils (<0.002% and <0.04%, respectively). The concentrations of free ionic copper and of copper in saturation extracts were correlated to total Cu levels and to soil pH. Mean copper concentrations were higher in lettuce than in tomato and onion plants and in vegetables grown on acidic soils of the Cachapoal basin. However, copper levels in edible tissues of tomato and lettuce plants were similar to copper levels described for plants grown on unpolluted soils except for onion bulbs, which had higher values. This indicates that copper translocation to edible, above-ground structures seemed to be well regulated, as their concentrations were fairly constant. The study shows that Cu concentration in study vegetables depends on various factors, including plant species and tissue; site-specific soil factors, such as pH, organic matter, dissolved organic carbon, and conductivity; and several Cu pools, such as total, extractable, and free ionic Cu. Thus, our results support the intensity/capacity concept in that Cu concentration in plants or plant tissues depends not only on the availability of free copper ions in soil solution but also on other soil copper pools that supply the element to the soil solution.