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EVIDENCE FOR THE ABSENCE OF ECOTYPIC DEVELOPMENT IN ANDROPOGON VIRGINICUS (L.) ON METALLIFEROUS MINE WASTES
Author(s) -
GIBSON D. J.,
RISSER P. G.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1982.tb03418.x
Subject(s) - edaphic , tailings , soil water , andropogon , population , biology , ecology , field experiment , agronomy , environmental science , chemistry , demography , sociology
SUMMARY Populations of broomsedge ( Andropogon virginicus L.) were studied from three sites in northeastern Oklahoma, U.S.A. The sites differed in the levels of the heavy metals lead, zinc and cadmium which had become incorporated into the soil; the highest concentrations were recorded from a mine site, intermediate levels at a nearby old field and normal soil levels at a control site. A greenhouse transplant experiment utilizing clonal segments of the three populations grown on field (mine, old field and control) and artificial (mine tailings and quartz sand) soils showed that on the field soils the mine and control populations demonstrated similar growth characteristics. The old‐field population differed from these populations in terms of ramet survivorship on the soils. These observations do not support the hypothesis of ecotypic differentiation in response to heavy‐metal contaminated soils, but suggest that the control and mine populations were genetically similar in their ability to tolerate the edaphic conditions of the mine site. The old‐field population may have differentiated in response to the high intraspecific competitive regime on its site.