Abstract
Aims
Harsh edaphic environments harbor species with different soil affinities. Plant’s responses to specific edaphic constraints may be compromised against responses to prevalent stresses shared with other semi-arid environments. We expect that species with high edaphic affinity may show traits to overcome harsh soil properties, while species with low affinity may respond to environmental constraints shared with arid environments.
Methods
We quantified the edaphic affinity of 12 plant species co-occurring in gypsum outcrops and measured traits related to plant responses to specific gypsum constraints (rooting and water uptake depth, foliar accumulation of Ca, S and Mg), and traits related to common constraints of arid environments (water use efficiency, macronutrients foliar content).
Results
Plants in gypsum outcrops differed in their strategies to face edaphic limitations. A phylogenetic informed PCA segregated species based on their foliar Ca and S accumulation and greater water uptake depths, associated with plant responses to specific gypsum limitations. Species’ gypsum affinity explained this segregation, but traits related to water or nutrient use efficiency did not contribute substantially to this axis.
Conclusions
Plant’s specializations to respond to specific edaphic constraints of gypsum soils do not limit their ability to deal with other non-specific environmental constraints.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks the Yesaires team, especially to Daniel A. Rodríguez Ginart, for making the fieldwork of quantification of species gypsum affinity possible. We thank Dr. Sara Palacio (IPE) and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful revisions and comments on the manuscript. RSM was supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovations (FPU grant FPU17/00629). JPF was supported by Grupo de Referencia H09_20R (Aragón regional government, Spain). Financial support was provided by the Valencian Regional Government (GV/2016/187) and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (RTI2018-099672-J-I00; CGL2013-48753-R co-funded by FEDER).
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Sánchez-Martín, R., Querejeta, J.I., Voltas, J. et al. Plant’s gypsum affinity shapes responses to specific edaphic constraints without limiting responses to other general constraints. Plant Soil 462, 297–309 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04866-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-021-04866-4