Element Accumulation Patterns of Native Plant Species under the Natural Geochemical Stress.

Vladimir A Alekseenko,Núria Roca,Jaume Bech,Alexander V Puzanov,Alexey V Alekseenko,Aleksey V Nastavkin,Mariya A Pashkevich,Natalya V Shvydkaya,Maria M Machevariani

doi:10.3390/plants10010033

Abstract

A biogeochemical study of more than 20,000 soil and plant samples from the North Caucasus, Dzungarian Alatau, Kazakh Uplands, and Karatau Mountains revealed features of the chemical element uptake by the local flora. Adaptation of ore prospecting techniques alongside environmental approaches allowed the detection of geochemical changes in ecosystems, and the lessons learned can be embraced for soil phytoremediation. The data on the influence of phytogeochemical stress on the accumulation of more than 20 chemical elements by plants are considered in geochemical provinces, secondary fields of deposits, halos surrounding ore and nonmetallic deposits, zones of regional faults and schist formation, and over lithological contact lines of chemically contrasting rocks overlain by 5–20 m thick soils and unconsolidated cover. We have corroborated the postulate that the element accumulation patterns of native plants under the natural geochemical stress depend not only on the element content in soils and the characteristics of a particular species but also on the values of ionic radii and valences; with an increase in the energy coefficients of a chemical element, its plant accumulation decreases sharply. The contribution of internal factors to element uptake from solutions gives the way to soil phytoremediation over vast contaminated areas. The use of hyperaccumulating species for mining site soil treatment depends on several external factors that can strengthen or weaken the stressful situation, viz., the amount of bedrock exposure and thickness of unconsolidated rocks over ores, the chemical composition of ores and primary halos in ore-containing strata, the landscape and geochemical features of sites, and chemical element migration patterns in the supergene zone.

Highlights

IntroductionGeochemical stress occurs when external factors result in abnormal changes in the content of chemical elements or compounds, often accompanied by changing distribution and modes of occurrence
Let us consider the results of such an impact on the example of the North Caucasus geochemical province
Internal factors contribute to the plant accumulation of these elements over vast areas

Summary

Introduction

Geochemical stress occurs when external factors result in abnormal changes in the content of chemical elements or compounds, often accompanied by changing distribution and modes of occurrence. In most cases, such natural and technogenic transformations that affect biological and biomineral systems arise in the atmosphere, at the surface and in groundwater, and soil [2,3]. The issue of the vegetation response to geochemical fluctuations was initially discussed in relation to mineral exploration and detection of anomalies, with the thought-provoking works coupling geochemical stress studies and remote sensing [4,5,6,7,8]. Together with the geological search for mineralized sites, environmental concepts have been developed as well; current findings point to using spectrometric studies of the vegetation index as a tool to detect metal stressed plants [9,10,11]

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Results

Conclusion