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Chemical soil factors influencing plant assemblages along copper-cobalt gradients: implications for conservation and restoration

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Abstract

Aims

Define the chemical factors structuring plant communities of three copper-cobalt outcrops (Tenke-Fungurume, Katangan Copperbelt, D. R. Congo) presenting extreme gradients.

Methods

To discriminate plant communities, 172 vegetation records of all species percentage cover were classified based on NMDS and the Calinski criterion. Soil samples were analyzed for 13 chemical factors and means compared among communities with ANOVA. Partial canonical correspondence analysis (pCCA) was used to determine amount of variation explained individually by each factor and site effect.

Results

Seven communities were identified. Six of the studied communities were related to distinct sites. Site effect (6.0 % of global inertia) was identified as the most important factor related to plant communities’ variation followed by Cu (5.5 %), pH (3.6 %) and Co (3.5 %). Unique contribution of site effect (3.8 %) was higher than that of Cu (1.1 %) and Co (1.0 %).

Conclusions

In restoration, not only Cu and Co contents will be important to maintain vegetation diversity, attention should also be given to co-varying factors potentially limiting toxicity of metals: pH, organic matter, Ca and Mn. Physical parameters were also identified as important in the creation of adequate conditions for diverse communities. Further studies should focus on the effect of physical parameters and geology.

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Acknowledgments

Tenke Fungurume Mining S.a.r.l. provided financial and logistic support to this study. Mr. Emile Kisimba helped with plant identification. Both travels realized for the present work have been made possible thanks to the financial intervention of the Conseil interuniversitaire de la Communauté française de Belgique-Commission Universitaire pour le Développement (CIUF-CUD). This work is part of the research project 2.4.582.09F funded by the FRS-FNRS and of the “Projet interuniversitaire ciblé” (Project REMEDLU) funded by the CUD. J.P. Bizoux is a postdoctoral researcher of the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS). The authors are grateful to Emile Kisimba, Francois Malaisse and Peter Goldblatt for determinations. We are grateful to Dr. Robert Mills for language revision and relevant comments on the manuscript. We would also like to thank the reviewers for valuable comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest, Nature and Landscape, Biodiversity and Landscape Unit, University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, 2 Passage des Déportés, Gembloux, 5030, Belgium

    Maxime Séleck, Jean-Philippe Bizoux, Arielle Guillaume, Julien Piqueray & Grégory Mahy

  2. Department of Science and Environmental Technology, Soil Science Unit, University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, 2 Passage des Déportés, Gembloux, 5030, Belgium

    Gilles Colinet

  3. Hydrogeochemical Interactions Soil-Environment (HydrISE) Unit, Polytechnic Institute LaSalle Beauvais (ISAB-IGAL), 15 rue Pierre Waguet, Beauvais, 60026, France

    Michel-Pierre Faucon

  4. Laboratoire d’Ecologie végétale et Biogéochimie, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, CP 244, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Pierre Meerts

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  1. Maxime Séleck
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  2. Jean-Philippe Bizoux
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  3. Gilles Colinet
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Correspondence to Grégory Mahy.

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Séleck, M., Bizoux, JP., Colinet, G. et al. Chemical soil factors influencing plant assemblages along copper-cobalt gradients: implications for conservation and restoration. Plant Soil 373, 455–469 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-013-1819-5

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