Positive response of seedlings from an old-growth grassland to soil quality improvement
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ECOLOGY & BIOGEOGRAPHY - ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Positive response of seedlings from an old‑growth grassland to soil quality improvement Thaise de O. Bahia1 · Hernani A. Almeida1 · Milton Barbosa2 · Daniel Negreiros2,3 · Mauricio Quesada4 · G. Wilson Fernandes2 Received: 19 May 2020 / Revised: 15 September 2020 / Accepted: 17 September 2020 / Published online: 3 October 2020 © Botanical Society of Sao Paulo 2020
Abstract Stress tolerance is the predominant strategy among the plant species that colonize the Brazilian rupestrian grassland (Campo rupestre) and is a response to edaphic conditions involving specific morphological and physiological adaptations. Motivated by the need to increase the efficiency in the production of seedlings, we experimentally evaluated whether these plant species are naturally limited in terms of optimum development and if they could have their survival and growth increased when cultivated under enhanced nutrient and water conditions and reduced iron concentration. To experimentally test this hypothesis, we cultivated seedlings of nine plant species in six distinct substrates for 150 days. The percentage of seedling survival had great variation among species (ranging from 40 to 100% survival). Eight out of the nine studied species showed higher growth and higher biomass accumulation as well as greater investment in aerial parts when grown in nursery or organic substrate (up to 10 times greater than the control treatment). This study provides evidence that these species also present reversible adjustment to cope with the poor soil conditions and are able to improve their performance in more fertile soils. Thus, seedling production for the restoration of ironstone rupestrian grasslands can be more efficient. Keywords Biomass · Campo rupestre · Canga · Nutrient · Restoration · Survival rate
1 Introduction Stress tolerance is a predominant strategy adopted by some plants as a response to edaphic conditions and involves specific morphological and physiological adaptations associated with low nutritional requirements and higher rates of Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-020-00660-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Thaise de O. Bahia [email protected] 1
Programa de Pós‑graduação em Ecologia de Biomas Tropicais/DEBIO, ICEB/Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Ouro Preto, MG 35400‑000, Brazil
2
Ecologia Evolutiva e Biodiversidade/DGEE, ICB/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, Belo Horizonte, MG 30161‑901, Brazil
3
Instituto de Ciências Biológicas e Saúde, Centro Universitário UNA, Belo Horizonte, 30180‑100, MG, Brazil
4
Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, Universidad Autonoma de México, Morelia, MIC, Mexico
survivorship (Bloom et al. 1985; Chapin et al. 1993; Körner 2003). Smaller, tougher, narrower, and highly sclerophyllous leaves are common in stress-tolerant species in the mountaintop rupestrian grassland (Campo rupestre) in southeastern Braz
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