Effect of Drought and Heavy Metal Contamination on Growth and Photosynthesis of Silver Birch Trees Growing on Post-Industrial Heaps.

Silver birch trees ( Roth) are a pioneering species in post-industrial habitats, and have been associated with an expansive breeding strategy and low habitat requirements. We conducted ecophysiological and dendroclimatological studies to check whether there are any features of which the modification enables birch trees to colonise extreme habitats successfully. We characterised the efficiency of the photosynthetic apparatus, the gas exchange, the content of pigments in leaves, and the growth (leaf thickness and tree-ring width) of birch trees on a post-coal mine heap, a post-smelter heap, and a reference site.

The Different Faces of -A Plant Species for a Special Purpose.

The following review article collects information on the plant species Arabidopsis arenosa. Thus far, A. arenosa has been known as a model species for autotetraploidy studies because, apart from diploid individuals, there are also tetraploid populations, which is a unique feature of this species.

Is the Age of Novel Ecosystem the Factor Driving Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Colonization in and ?

Some sites transformed or created by humans (novel ecosystem) are different both in vegetation and ecosystems establishment and development. The unknown habitat conditions and new species composition is resulting in new abiotic and biotic systems. To improve the understanding of the process governing the relationships between the environmental factors, plant species assemblages and their arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation were studied in chronosequence on post-coal mine heaps.

Ecophysiology of Arabidopsis arenosa, a new hyperaccumulator of Cd and Zn.

Arabidopsis arenosa is a pseudo-metallophyte, closely related to the model hyperaccumulator of Cd and Zn Arabidopsis halleri. A. arenosa occurs naturally in both diploid (2C) and tetraploid (4C) form, in contrast to A.

Adaptation of Arabidopsis halleri to extreme metal pollution through limited metal accumulation involves changes in cell wall composition and metal homeostasis.

Metallophytes constitute powerful models for the study of metal homeostasis, adaptation to extreme environments and the evolution of naturally selected traits. Arabidopsis halleri is a pseudometallophyte which shows constitutive zinc/cadmium (Zn/Cd) tolerance and Zn hyperaccumulation but high intraspecific variability in Cd accumulation. To examine the molecular basis of the variation in metal tolerance and accumulation, ionome, transcriptome and cell wall glycan array profiles were compared in two genetically close A.