Nickel accumulation by species of Alyssum and Noccaea (Brassicaceae) from ultramafic soils in the Urals, Russia

Abstract

Cool temperate regions have a limited number of species able to accumulate nickel (Ni) and other heavy metals in above-ground tissues. Our study was conducted in order to find accumulators of Ni on serpentine soils in the Middle and Southern Urals. Above-ground tissues of plants as well as soil samples were collected in 10 ultramafic massifs. Our results confirmed hyperaccumulation activity of Alyssum obovatum (C.A.Mey.) Turcz. Three species that appeared to be hemi-accumulators of Ni are Alyssum litvinovii Knjaz., Alyssum tortuosum Willd. and Noccaea thlaspidioides (Pall.) F.K.Mey. All these species are facultative accumulators/hyperaccumulators and exhibit different concentrations of Ni under a range of soil conditions. The highest Ni concentration was found in A. obovatum in Krakinskiy massif (6008 μg·g–1 dry mass), A. tortuosum (1789 μg·g–1) and A. litvinovii (160 μg·g–1) in Khabarninskiy massif, and N. thlaspidioides (741 μg·g–1) in Sugomakskiy massif (Southern Urals). Regression analysis shows statistically significant dependence of Ni concentrations in soil and tissue of both A. obovatum and A. tortuosum. The latter shows a dramatically high difference in the level of accumulation that varies from excluder to 20 μg g–1 Ni to hyperaccumulator levels, suggesting the existence of genetically distinct populations with the ability to vary their accumulation of Ni.

Ultramafic vegetation and soils in the circumboreal region of the Northern Hemisphere

“…Skeletal soils on serpentinites are characterized by low plant nutrients, particularly phosphorus and potassium as reported for Great Britain (0.02%, Proctor and Woodell 1971). Potassium is also low in the soils of Newfoundland (0.03-0.39%, Roberts and Proctor 1992), Japan (0.02-4.7%, Mizuno et al 2009), and Middle and Southern Urals (0.02-0.43%, Teptina and Paukov 2015). Low quantities of potassium are also reported in the Polar Urals (Proctor et al 2005;Kataeva 2013), Chukotka (Drozdova and Yurtzev 1995;Drozdova and Alekseeva-Popova 1999), and North America (Alexander 2004).…”

“…Proctor and Woodell (1971), Proctor (1992), Roberts and Proctor (1992), Ghaderian et al (2007a, b), Bani et al (2009Bani et al ( , 2010Bani et al ( , 2013; Mizuno et al (2009), Kataeva (2013, Tomovicé t al. (2013), Tumi (2013), Teptina and Paukov (2015) and Stamenkovic´et al (2017) Data on available and exchangeable Ni in soils of different localities are not exhaustive to make a comprehensive conclusion on its dependence on climatic factors; however, soils in localities which belong to the circumboreal region contain less available and more exchangeable Ni compared to more southern sites situated in Iran or in the Mediterranean region ( Fig. 2).…”

“…Content of other metals in soils of circumboreal zone is likewise highly variable and may reflect the peculiarities of chemical composition of ultramafic rocks. Chromium content in soils vary dramatically: 50-19,100 lgg À1 in Britain (Proctor 1992), 55-523 lg g À1 in the Southern and Middle Urals (Teptina and Paukov 2015) and 91-3865 lgg À1 in Albania (Shallari et al 1998;Bani et al 2010), 1110-2170 lgg À1 in Greece (Bani et al 2010), 1785-3870 lgg À1 in Bulgaria (Bani et al 2010), and 36-365 lgg À1 in Iran (Ghaderian et al 2007a, b) A ten-fold difference was found between the lowest and the highest concentrations of total Fe and Co in ultramafic soils between arctic, cold, cool temperate and Mediterranean regions. The northernmost localities contain less total Fe, Ca and Co (Figs.…”

“…It is generally less than 1% (often with a Ca:Mg molar quotient of < 1), however, Ca concentrations may vary from very low (0.11% in Albania) to fairly high (7% in Britain). Conversely, Mg is prevalent in all ultramafic soils of circumboreal region, including 0.8-5.4% in the Southern and Middle Urals (Teptina and Paukov 2015), 0.16-0.17% in Maine (Pope et al 2010), 11-26% in Japan (Mizuno et al 2009), 13-19% in Bulgaria (Bani et al 2010, and 10-16% in Iran (Ghaderian et al 2007a, b).…”

“…Ultramafic flora of Europe focus on ultramafic outcrops in the Balkan Peninsula (Tatic´and Veljovic1 992;B a n ie ta l .2010), and the North Caucasus Alekseeva-Popova et al 2015). Studies in the Eastern part of Eurasia include those in the ultramafic mountains occurring in the Polar region (Alekseeva-Popova 1970;Yurtzev et al 2004;P r o c t o r et al 2005;K h o l o d2007), Northern (Kulikov and Kirsanova 2012) ,M i d d l ea n dS o u t h e r nU r a l s( T e p t i n a and Paukov 2012Paukov , 2015, Chukotka (Drozdova and Yurtzev 1995;Drozdova and Alekseeva-Popova 1999) and Japan (Mizuno and Nosaka 1992;Sakaguchi et al 2017).…”