Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Series

2014

Edaphic ecology

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Diversity And Soil-Tissue Elemental Relations Of Vascular Plants Of Callahan Mine, Brooksville, Maine, U.S.A., Margaret R. Mansfield, Nathaniel S. Pope, Glen H. Mittelhauser, Nishanta Rajakaruna Sep 2014

Diversity And Soil-Tissue Elemental Relations Of Vascular Plants Of Callahan Mine, Brooksville, Maine, U.S.A., Margaret R. Mansfield, Nathaniel S. Pope, Glen H. Mittelhauser, Nishanta Rajakaruna

Biological Sciences

Metal-contaminated soils provide numerous stressors to plant life, resulting in unique plant communities worldwide. The current study focuses on the vascular plants of Callahan Mine in Brooksville, ME, USA, a Superfund site contaminated with Cu, Zn, Pb, and other pollutants. One hundred and fifty-five taxa belonging to 50 families were identified, with the Asteraceae (21%), Poaceae (11%), and Rosaceae (9%) as the most species-rich families. Ninety-six species encountered at the Mine were native to North America (62%), including 11 taxa (7%) with rarity status in at least one New England state. Fifty-one species were non-native (33%), including nine taxa (6%) …


A Preliminary Study Of The Role Of Nickel In Enhancing Flowering Of The Nickel Hyperaccumulating Plant Alyssum Inflatum Nyár. (Brassicaceae), R. Ghasemi, Z. Zare Chavoshi, R.S. Boyd, Nishanta Rajakaruna Mar 2014

A Preliminary Study Of The Role Of Nickel In Enhancing Flowering Of The Nickel Hyperaccumulating Plant Alyssum Inflatum Nyár. (Brassicaceae), R. Ghasemi, Z. Zare Chavoshi, R.S. Boyd, Nishanta Rajakaruna

Biological Sciences

Alyssum inflatum is a native of serpentine soils and is able to hyperaccumulate nickel (Ni), but the importance of Ni to reproduction in the species is unknown. We investigated if reproductive fitness is enhanced by Ni in the growth medium, and included a treatment involving a relatively high level of Mg to provide a comparison with elevated levels of another metal. Seedlings were grown in a modified Hoagland solution culture in an inert medium of Perlite and were treated with Ni (100 μM), a high concentration of Mg (5 mM), or under control conditions (solution culture without Ni or the …


Additional Lichen Records And Mineralogical Data From Metal-Contaminated Sites In Maine, Ian D. Medeiros, Alan M. Fryday, N. Rajakaruna Jan 2014

Additional Lichen Records And Mineralogical Data From Metal-Contaminated Sites In Maine, Ian D. Medeiros, Alan M. Fryday, N. Rajakaruna

Biological Sciences

Geochemistry and mineralogy of rocks play important roles in the occurrence of individual lichen species and assembly of lichen communities. Whereas lichens of metal-enriched settings have been a focus of study for many decades, only a few such lichen inventories exist for North America. We reexamined the lichen biota of Pine Hill, a serpentine outcrop on Little Deer Isle, Maine and Callahan Mine, a copper-and zinc-enriched Superfund site in Brooksville, Maine by conducting additional field surveys and reexamining unidentified taxa from previous collections. To better characterize the substrates upon which the lichens were found, we conducted elemental analyses via x-ray …