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 m2), 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.

Differential Tolerance to Lead and Cadmium of Micropropagated Gypsophila fastigiata Ecotype

“…For years, metallophytes of both natural and human-influenced metalliferous soils have focused considerable attention due to their unique appearance and ability to colonize extremely harsh habitats. Through evolution, the plants occurring on metalliferous habitats have developed a range of intriguing adaptive traits, demonstrated as unique morphological, behavioral, and physiological alterations that enable them to avoid or tolerate metal toxicity (Gołębiewski et al 2014 ; Woch et al 2016 ; Wójcik et al 2017 ). Thus, metallophytes possess mechanisms responsible for plant cell protection from excess amount of metallic ions which may get into the protoplast as well as for their detoxification inside the cell by chelation, vacuolar sequestration, or exclusion from the symplast.…”

Assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area - before and after the end of mining activities

“…Several studies have been focused on this issue in Central Europe, including Poland (Jablonska & Siedlecka 2015; Woch et al 2015), Czech Republic (Pavlů et al 2007;Soudek et al 2015), Hungary (Szabó et al 2015) or Germany (Mayanna et al 2015).…”

Legacy Effects of Explosive Contamination on Vegetative Communities

“…Presence or absence of explosives compounds was unable to differentiate treatment groups from one another using standard species diversity metrics (S, H′, D 1 ). Woch et al (2016) [7] found a similar response along a heavy metal gradient and suggested that similarity was due to less tolerant species being removed and more tolerant species coming in and establishing in the newly formed gaps and this trend had also been observed repeatedly in systems under natural disturbance regimes [57]- [61]. This idea is further supported by the significant increase in annual and monocot species presence in RDX plots as well as the increase in annuals CWM in TNT plots.…”

“…Increases in annuals and graminoids have been observed in the presence of contaminants [62] [63] [66]. Compositional changes away from zoochorous species has been connected with harsh habitats; particularly young or disturbed ones [7] [82]. Functional richness and divergence have often been linked to community assembly processes [83]- [85] or ecosystem functioning [86]- [88].…”

“…Loss or suppression of dominant/key species can have significant effects on ecosystem function [4], but even changes in non-dominant species density may have significant community level impacts [5]. Community shifts have been previously investigated and documented for a range of anthropogenic contaminants [6] [7] from mining operations [8]- [10] to radiation exposure [11]. Richness and diversity of plant species and functional diversity may be vital to ecosystem stability and function [12]- [15].…”