Abstract
Our study aimed at deepen our understanding of relationships between soil properties and vegetation distribution in metalliferous ecosystems of Tenke-Fungurume in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The first question concerned the differences and similarities between soils of the main vegetation units and four variation factors of soil properties were summarized by multivariate analysis. They were all linked to lithology and significantly contributed to explain the distribution of vegetation units. Our result suggest that the variation of soil properties which is observed within the various vegetation units (rocky steppe savanna, sward, and steppe savannas on slope or on Dembo) should partially be attributed to differences of geochemical composition of rocks between sites but the main source of variability is to be found inside each hill. The soil contamination in Cu and Co originates from rock weathering and besides site effect and topographic distribution of the rocks, the variability of soil properties within one vegetation unit may be due to variability of soil parent material and not only to erosion. The second question dealt with the changes of soil properties at small distances. Metric variation was studied from transects between adjacent vegetation units. Our results showed that the abrupt changes of vegetation units which were clearly identified on the field were all truly explained by the variations of one or more properties linked to lithology. The key point being the Cu bioavailability.
Highlights
Metal-rich soils provide very restrictive habitats for plants due to phytotoxicity and resulting severe selection pressure [1]
Regarding Co content, Fu3 and Fu8 show the highest levels and SHC and Shadiranzoro West (SHW) the lowest, which means that mineralization of rocks with Cu and Co might have differed from one site to another
Our study aimed at deepen our understanding of relationships between soil properties and vegetation distribution in copper/cobaltiferous ecosystems of Tenke-Fungurme
Summary
Metal-rich soils provide very restrictive habitats for plants due to phytotoxicity and resulting severe selection pressure [1]. They can host a unique flora [12], such as copper flora from which plant species contribute highly to global biodiversity [20] and are priceless related to their properties [44, 49]. Soil enrichment in copper (Cu) and cobalt (Co) may result from natural anomalies or human activities [21]. Some plants are able to tolerate high concentrations of Cu and Co in soils [2, 6]. Tolerance mechanisms to Cu and Co were found on some cuprophytes from Katanga [4, 7, 8, 10, 34, 35, 39]
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