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Relationships between serpentine soils and vegetation in a xeric inner-Alpine environment

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Abstract

Aims

In serpentinitic areas non-endemic plants suffer from the serpentine syndrome, due to high Ni and Mg concentrations, low nutrients and Ca/Mg ratio. We evaluated the environment-soil-vegetation relationships in a xeric inner-alpine area (NW Italy), where the inhibited pedogenesis should enhance parent material influences on vegetation.

Methods

Site conditions, topsoil properties, plant associations and species on and off serpentinite were statistically associated (51 sites).

Results

Serpentine soils had higher Mg and Ni concentrations, but did not differ from non-serpentine ones in nutrient contents. The 15 vegetation clusters often showed substrate specificity. Two components of the Canonical Analysis of Principal Coordinates, respectively related to Mg and to Ni and heat load, identified serpentine vegetation. Random Forests showed that several species were positively correlated with Ni and/or Ca/Mg or Mg, some were negatively associated with high Ni, Mg excess affected only few species. Considering only serpentine sites, nutrients and microclimate were most important.

Conclusions

Ni excess most often precludes the presence of plant species on serpentinite, while an exclusion due to Mg is rarer. Endemic species are mostly adapted to both factors. Nutrient scarcity was not specific of serpentine soils in the considered environment. Considering only serpentine sites, nutrient and microclimatic gradients drove vegetation variability.

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Acknowledgments

This study was performed thanks to the research agreement between the University of Turin, NATRISK centre, and Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta, Department of Soil protection and Water Resources. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and the Editor of Plant and Soil journal for the useful comments on previous versions of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università di Torino - DISAFA, via L. da Vinci 44, 10095, Grugliasco, Italy

    Michele E. D’Amico, Eleonora Bonifacio & Ermanno Zanini

  2. Università di Torino - NATRISK, via L. da Vinci 44, 10095, Grugliasco, Italy

    Michele E. D’Amico & Ermanno Zanini

Authors
  1. Michele E. D’Amico
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  2. Eleonora Bonifacio
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  3. Ermanno Zanini
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Correspondence to Michele E. D’Amico.

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Responsible Editor: Henk Schat.

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D’Amico, M.E., Bonifacio, E. & Zanini, E. Relationships between serpentine soils and vegetation in a xeric inner-Alpine environment. Plant Soil 376, 111–128 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-013-1971-y

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