Plant Ecology and Evolution in Harsh Environments

442 Pages·2014·7.279 MB·English

by  Nishanta Rajakaruna, Robert S. Boyd, Tanner B. Harris

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH ADVANCES

P E E
LANT COLOGY AND VOLUTION
H E
IN ARSH NVIRONMENTS

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E R A
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ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH ADVANCES

P E E
LANT COLOGY AND VOLUTION
H E
IN ARSH NVIRONMENTS

NISHANTA RAJAKARUNA
ROBERT S. BOYD
AND
TANNER B. HARRIS
EDITORS

New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Plant ecology and evolution in harsh environments / editors, Nishanta Rajakaruna (College of the
Atlantic, ME, USA), Robert S. Boyd (Auburn University, AL, USA) and Tanner B. Harris (WRA,
Inc., San Rafael, CA, USA).
pages cm -- (Environmental research advances)
Includes index.
ISBN: (cid:28)(cid:26)(cid:27)(cid:16)(cid:20)(cid:16)(cid:25)(cid:22)(cid:22)(cid:21)(cid:20)(cid:16)(cid:28)(cid:28)(cid:27)(cid:16)(cid:23) (eBook)
1. Plant ecology. 2. Plants--Evolution. 3. Plant-soil relationships. 4. Extreme environments. I.
Rajakaruna, Nishanta, 1969-
QK901.P572 2014
581.7--dc23
2014034858

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York
CONTENTS

Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Chapter 1 Bedrock and Geochemical Controls on Extremophile Habitats 1
Dawn Cardace, D’Arcy R. Meyer-Dombard,
Amanda A. Olsen and M. Niki Parenteau
Chapter 2 The Ecology and Evolution of Mycorrhizal Fungi in Extreme Soils 33
Shannon Schechter and Sara Branco
Chapter 3 Lichens on Metal-Rich Substrates 53
Sergio Enrico Favero-Longo
Chapter 4 Evolution of Salt Tolerance in Angiosperms:
A Phylogenetic Approach 77
C. Haris Saslis-Lagoudakis, Camile Moray
and Lindell Bromham
Chapter 5 The Ecology, Assembly and Evolution of Gypsophile Floras 97
Michael J. Moore, Juan F. Mota, Norman A. Douglas,
Hilda Flores Olvera and Helga Ochoterena
Chapter 6 Physiological Adaptations of Plants to Serpentine Soil 129
Emily R. Palm and Elizabeth Van Volkenburgh
Chapter 7 Ecology and Evolution of Plants in Arctic and
Alpine Environments 149
Amy L. Breen, David F. Murray, Martha K. Raynolds,
Ina Timling and Donald A. Walker
Chapter 8 Drivers of Diversity in Evergreen Woody Plant Lineages
Experiencing Canopy Fire Regimes in Mediterranean-Type
Climate Regions 179
Michael C. Vasey and V. Thomas Parker
vi Contents
Chapter 9 The Evolutionary Ecology and Genetics of Stress Resistance
Syndrome (SRS) Traits: Revisiting Chapin, Autumn
and Pugnaire (1993) 201
Eric J. B. von Wettberg, Jayanti Ray-Mukherjee,
Nathan D’Adesky, Damian Nesbeth and Seeta Sistla
Chapter 10 Ecology and Evolution of Metal-Hyperaccumulating Plants 227
Robert S. Boyd
Chapter 11 Methods and Discoveries in the Pursuit of Understanding
the Genetic Basis of Adaptation to Harsh Environments
in Mimulus 243
Jessica P. Selby, Annie L. Jeong, Katherine Toll,
Kevin M. Wright and David B. Lowry
Chapter 12 Bryophytes: Survival in a Dry World through
Tolerance and Avoidance 267
Dale H. Vitt, Barbara Crandall-Stotler and Andrew Wood
Chapter 13 Climate Change and the Future of Edaphic Floras 297
Barbara Fernandez-Going
Chapter 14 Conservation and Restoration of Chemically
Extreme Edaphic Endemic Flora in the Western US 313
Ryan E. O’Dell
Chapter 15 Phytoremediation and Phytomining: Using Plants
to Remediate Contaminated or Mineralized Environments 365
Rufus L. Chaney, Roger D. Reeves, Ilya A. Baklanov,
Tiziana Centofanti, C. Leigh Broadhurst, Alan J. M. Baker,
Antony van der Ent and Richard J. Roseberg
Chapter 16 Synthesis and Future Directions: What Have Harsh
Environments Taught Us about Ecology, Evolution,
Conservation, and Restoration? 393
Nishanta Rajakaruna, Robert S. Boyd and Tanner B. Harris
Editors' Contact Information 411
Species Index 413
Subject Index 419
PREFACE

Harsh environments occur across the globe, often appearing as barren, desolate places
incapable of supporting life. In reality, harsh environments are hotspots for biological
diversity, supporting numerous rare and endemic organisms (Harrison & Rajakaruna, 2011;
Myers et al., 2000; Nagy & Grabherr, 2009; Ward, 2008; Wharton, 2002). These habitats
range from arctic and alpine environments to Mediterranean regions and inland deserts.
Included are habitats with extreme soils such as serpentine, saline, sodic, and gypseous soils,
as well as mine tailings and other metal-enriched soils.
Organisms that live in these environments must cope with extreme climatic variables
such as solar radiation, temperature, and water availability. They must also cope with other
abiotic stressors such as nutrient limitation, elemental toxicity, or extreme pH values. These
environmental extremes necessitate novel adaptations for survival and act as both drivers of
evolution and ecological filters, resulting in unique assemblages of organisms. The study of
these habitats and the organisms that inhabit them have taught us much about evolution,
ecology, and biology, and has provided insights into organismal response to climate change
and other environmental perturbations, as well as insights into exobiology, biotechnology,
restoration, and conservation. Studies of microbes and small invertebrates have received the
most attention (e.g., Horikoshi & Grant, 1998; Kushner, 1978; Liebezeit et al., 2000;
Seckbach, 1999; Wharton, 2002), and a recent book focused mainly on animal adaptations
(Lubzens et al. 2010); however, there is an extensive set of literature on plants, algae, and
fungi found in harsh environments.
Many of the books on plant ecology and evolution in harsh environments focus on either
a single extreme habitat (e.g., Harrison & Rajakaruna, 2011; Nagy & Grabherr, 2009; Ward,
2008) or a single stressor (e.g., Aroca, 2012; Lüttge et al., 2011; Turkan, 2011). In this book,
we bring together a wide range of topics on ecology and evolution in harsh environments of
plants (as well as a wide range of other non-animal organisms), with chapters written by
experts from around the world. We begin with the creation of harsh environments, focusing
on the roles of bedrock geochemistry and soil evolutionary processes in generating habitats
with extreme abiotic conditions for photosynthetic and chemosynthetic processes (Chapter 1).
Later chapters discuss the biology, ecology, and evolution of bryophytes (Chapter 12),
vascular plants (Chapters 4-11), lichens (Chapter 3), herbivores and pathogens (Chapter 10),
mycorrhizal fungi (Chapter 2), and other beneficial microbes (Chapters 1, 10) found in a
range of harsh environments, including alpine and arctic settings (Chapter 7), fire-prone
Mediterranean climates (Chapter 8), serpentine outcrops (Chapters 2, 3, 6, 10, 11, 13-15),
gypsum soils (Chapters 2, 5, 14), metal-rich mine tailings (Chapters 2, 3, 10, 11, 14, 15), and
viii Nishanta Rajakaruna, Robert S. Boyd and Tanner B. Harris
saline soils (Chapters 2, 4, 11). We highlight new tools and emerging techniques in high-
throughput phenotyping, genomics, and phylogenetics and the role of these tools in
developing our understanding of the patterns and processes of evolution in harsh
environments (Chapters 4, 5, 9, 11). These techniques, combined with classical ecological
approaches, including reciprocal transplant studies (Chapter 11), allow us to carefully
examine adaptation to and evolution in harsh environments, even providing genomic insights
to stress tolerance in plants with direct implications for agriculture, biotechnology,
restoration, and conservation (Chapters 7, 9, 11, 13-15; Peleg et al., 2011). Finally, several
lines of needed research are emphasized, from phylogenomics and population genomics to
developmental genetics and comparative biology of non-model plants (Chapters 4, 5, 9, 11,
16). This research will improve our understanding of plant and fungal life found in extreme
habitats, not only on Earth, but also extraterrestrial life that likely exists elsewhere in the
universe. Due to the limited extent and patchy distribution of harsh environments, plants
found in these habitats are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change (Chapters
7, 13) and other anthropogenic impacts (Chapters 14, 15). Many of these habitats have been
given a protected status based on their unique biological diversity and have been subject to
restoration efforts (Chapter 14); however, much work is needed to improve the efficacy of
these conservation and restoration efforts. The studies summarized in this book highlight
improvements in our understanding of the ecology and evolution of plants and fungi found in
harsh environments, adding both tools and knowledge to our efforts to restore and protect
these unique habitats and the organisms that occur there. In the final chapter of this book, we
summarize additional areas of research needed to improve restoration and conservation
efforts (Chapter 16).

REFERENCES

Aroca, R. (Ed.) (2012) Plant responses to drought stress: From morphological to molecular
features. New York, NY: Springer.
Harrison, S. & Rajakaruna, N. (Eds.) (2011) Serpentine: The evolution and ecology of a
model system. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Horikoshi, K. & Grant, W. D. (1998) Extremophiles: Microbial life in extreme environments.
New York, NY: Wiley.
Kushner, D. J. (1978) Microbial life in extreme environments. New York, NY: Academic
Press.
Liebezeit, G., Dittmann, S. & Kröncke, I. (Eds.) (2000) Life at interfaces and under extreme
conditions. Developments in hydrobiology Vol. 151. New York, NY: Springer.
Lüttge, U., Beck, E., & Bartels, D. (Eds.) (2011) Plant desiccation tolerance. New York, NY:
Springer.
Lubzens, E., Cerdà, J. & Clark, M. S. (Eds.) (2010) Dormancy and resistance in harsh
environments. New York, NY: Springer.
Myers, N., Mittermeier, R. A., Mittermeier, C. G., da Fonseca, G. A. B. & Kent, J. (2000)
Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403, 853-858.
Nagy, L. & Grabherr, G. (2009) Biology of alpine environments. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press.