Botanical Studies最新文献

{"title":"Responses of photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence during light induction in different seedling ages of Mahonia oiwakensis.","authors":"Chung-I Chen,&nbsp;Kuan-Hung Lin,&nbsp;Tzu-Chao Lin,&nbsp;Meng-Yuan Huang,&nbsp;Yung-Chih Chen,&nbsp;Chau-Ching Huang,&nbsp;Ching-Wen Wang","doi":"10.1186/s40529-023-00369-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-023-00369-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The aim of this study was to determine the actual state of the photosynthetic apparatus and exhibit distinguishable differences in the chlorophyll fluorescence (ChlF) components in different seedling ages of M. oiwakensis plants subjected to different light intensity (LI). Potted 6-month-old greenhouse seedlings and field collected 2.4-year-old seedlings with 5 cm heights were selected and randomly separated into seven groups for photosynthesis measurements illuminated with 50, 100 (assigned as low LI), 300, 500, 1,000 (as moderate LI), 1,500 and 2,000 (as high LI) μmol m^-2 s^-1 photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) treatments.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>n 6-month-old seedlings, as LI increased from 50 to 2,000 PPFD, the values of non-photochemical quenching and photo-inhibitory quenching (qI) increased but potential quantum efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) and photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (ΦPSII) values decreased. High electron transport rate and percentage of actual PSII efficiency by Fv/Fm values were observed in 2.4-year-old seedlings at high LI conditions. Furthermore, higher ΦPSII was detected under low LI conditions, with lower energy-dependent quenching (qE) and qI values and photo-inhibition % decreased as well. However, qE and qI increased as ΦPSII decreased and photo-inhibition% increased under high LI treatments.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These results could be useful for predicting the changes in growth and distribution of Mahonia species grown in controlled environments and open fields with various combinations of varying light illuminations, and ecological monitoring of their restoration and habitat creation is important for provenance conservation and helps to formulate better conservation strategies for the seedlings.</p>","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":"64 1","pages":"5"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9995626/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9087038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Alleviation of the adverse effects of NaCl stress on tomato seedlings (Solanum lycopersicum L.) by Trichoderma viride through the antioxidative defense system.","authors":"Rabab A Metwally, Shereen A Soliman","doi":"10.1186/s40529-023-00368-x","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40529-023-00368-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Trichoderma viride are well known for their biocontrol capabilities, but little is known about how they stimulate plant development and increase their resistance to salt stress. One of the main abiotic factors limiting crop development and yield is salt stress. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to ascertain how NaCl effects on T. viride growth as well as on the seedlings morphological and physio-biochemical parameters of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under plate culture conditions. Additionally, a pot experiment was conducted to determine how T. viride affected the development characteristics of tomato plants subjected to various salt concentrations (50 and 100 mM NaCl). T. viride's contribution to tomato seedling stress tolerance was also closely examined.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Results showed that 100 mM NaCl decreased the colony diameter of T. viride by 13.4% compared to the control. Under plate and greenhouse conditions, tomato seedlings exposed to salt exposure exhibited an overall decline in growth. Also, a reduction in relative water content (RWC) and protein contents occurred under salt stress. At the same time, increases were found in proline, total phenolics, flavonoids, H₂O₂ content, malondialdehyde, likewise the activities of peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) enzymes. Even though, with T. viride application, the salt negative effects on both morphological and physio-biochemical parameters were mitigated to a greater extent. T. viride increased proline and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in tomato seedlings at 100 mM NaCl by an average of 20.66 and 43.82% compared to their comparable control. T. viride increased the activities of CAT, PPO, and APX enzymes by 74.6, 58.48, and 61.61% at 50 mM NaCl compared to non-saline control seedlings. As well, T. viride decreased MDA and H₂O₂ contents by an average of 14 and 24.8% in tomato seedlings at 50 mM NaCl compared to their comparable control. Also, under 100 mM NaCl, the T. viride-treated tomato seedlings showed increased total phenolics (17.85%) and flavonoids (33.17%) compared to non- treated one.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Hence, our research sheds new insight on the pathways by which T. viride can boost tomato seedling tolerance to salt stress at morphological and physio-biochemical levels by activating both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":"64 1","pages":"4"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9908811/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10678335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Veronicastrum wulingense (Plantaginaceae), a new species from Southwestern Hubei, China.","authors":"Shi-Xiong Ding,&nbsp;Hui Jiang,&nbsp;Jing Tian,&nbsp;Jing Ren,&nbsp;Fredrick Munyao Mutie,&nbsp;Emmanuel Nyongesa Waswa,&nbsp;Guang-Wan Hu,&nbsp;Qing-Feng Wang","doi":"10.1186/s40529-023-00367-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-023-00367-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The genus Veronicastrum Heist. ex Fabr. are mainly distributed in East Asia, and only Veronicastrum virginicum (L.) Farw. is disjunctively distributed in eastern North America. The south area of China (extending to Taiwan Island) is the richest in Veronicastrum species. It is of medicinal importance in China as traditional herbs used to treat ascites diseases that caused by schistosomiasis. During field investigation of plant resources in Pingbaying National Forest Park, Southwestern Hubei, China, an unknown flowering population of Veronicastrum was discovered from thick humus layers adjacent to rocks under broad-leaved forests by walkways. They were collected and morphological characters assesed for further taxonomic treatment. Molecular analysis was also conducted to ascertain its phylogenetic position in the genus Veronicastrum.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>This species is similar to Veronicastrum liukiuense (Ohwi) T.Yamaz. from the Ryukyu Islands, but can be distinctly differed by its axillary inflorescences (versus terminal on short leafy branches), pedicels up to 2.5 mm (versus sessile), corollas purple to purple-red (versus white tinged with pale purple) and florescence June to July (versus September to October). Also, phylogenetic studies showed the species was an independent clade in the genus Veronicastrum based on the maximum likelihood (ML) analyses using two different matrix sequences of concatenated molecular markers. The plastid genome of this new species is also reported in this study for the first time.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The morphological and molecular evidences support the recognition of Veronicastrum wulingense as a new species.</p>","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":"64 1","pages":"3"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9889593/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10646716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Living on the edge: morphological, karyological and genetic diversity studies of the Hungarian Plantago maxima populations and established ex situ collection.","authors":"Zsófia Kovács,&nbsp;Jelena Mlinarec,&nbsp;Mária Höhn","doi":"10.1186/s40529-022-00365-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-022-00365-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The analysis of genetic diversity of protected plant species can greatly support conservation efforts. Plantago maxima Juss. ex Jacq. is a perennial species distributed along the Eurasian steppe. The westernmost range edge of the species' distribution is located in the Pannonian basin, in Hungary where it is represented by a few, fragmented and highly endangered populations. We studied population diversity of all Hungarian range edge, natural populations, and one established ex situ population. One population from the centre of distribution (Kazakhstan) was implemented in the cpDNA haplotype study to compare the peripheral vs. central populations. We performed morphometric trait-based analysis, chromosome studies (morphometric analyses and FISH) and genetic diversity evaluations using inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) and cpDNA trnL-trnF to evaluate differences between the in situ and ex situ populations as well as central vs. peripheral populations.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our results showed no obvious morphological differences among the in situ and ex situ populations in the period between 2018 and 2020. One ex situ subpopulation develops flowers three years in a row from 2019, which is a favourable indicator of the introduction success. Hungarian populations are exclusively diploids (2n = 2x = 12). The karyogram consists of 5 metacentric and 1 acrocentric chromosome pair. Plantago maxima has one 35S and two 5S rDNA loci, located on the acrocentric chromosome pair. Eight variable ISSR primers yielded 100 fragments, of which 74.6% were polymorphic (mean H_e = 0.220). A high level of genetic variation within population was observed (92%) while the genetic differentiation among the populations was only 8%. STRUCTURE analysis revealed that the largest Kunpeszér population separated from the rest of the Hungarian populations, indicating a high rate of admixture among the other ones. Based on the trnL-trnF sequence analysis the Hungarian populations represent a single haplotype, which can indicate a reduced diversity due to isolation and recent population decline. By contrast, Kazakh population represents a distinct haplotype compared to the Hungarian samples.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The present study draws the attention to the high conservation value of the Plantago maxima populations from the westernmost range edge of the species' distribution.</p>","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":"64 1","pages":"2"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9873897/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9176473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"MethylC-analyzer: a comprehensive downstream pipeline for the analysis of genome-wide DNA methylation.","authors":"Rita Jui-Hsien Lu,&nbsp;Pei-Yu Lin,&nbsp;Ming-Ren Yen,&nbsp;Bing-Heng Wu,&nbsp;Pao-Yang Chen","doi":"10.1186/s40529-022-00366-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-022-00366-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>DNA methylation is a crucial epigenetic modification involved in multiple biological processes and diseases. Current approaches for measuring genome-wide DNA methylation via bisulfite sequencing (BS-seq) include whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS), reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS), and enzymatic methyl-seq (EM-seq). The computational analysis tools available for BS-seq data include customized aligners for mapping bisulfite-converted reads and computational pipelines for downstream data analysis. Current post-alignment methylation tools are specialized for the interpretation of CG methylation, which is known to dominate mammalian genomes, however, non-CG methylation (CHG and CHH, where H refers to A, C, or T) is commonly observed in plants and fungi and is closely associated with gene regulation, transposon silencing, and plant development. Thus, we have developed a MethylC-analyzer to analyze and visualize post-alignment WGBS, RRBS, and EM-seq data focusing on CG. The tool is able to also analyze non-CG sites to enhance deciphering genomes of plants and fungi. By processing aligned data and gene location files, MethylC-analyzer generates a genome-wide view of methylation levels and methylation in user-specified genomic regions. The meta-plot, for example, allows the investigation of DNA methylation within specific genomic elements. Moreover, our tool identifies differentially methylated regions (DMRs) and investigates the enrichment of genomic features associated with variable methylation. MethylC-analyzer functionality is not limited to specific genomes, and we demonstrated its performance on both plant and human BS-seq data. MethylC-analyzer is a Python- and R-based program designed to perform comprehensive downstream analyses of methylation data, providing an intuitive analysis platform for scientists unfamiliar with DNA methylation analysis. It is available as either a standalone version for command-line uses or a graphical user interface (GUI) and is publicly accessible at https://github.com/RitataLU/MethylC-analyzer .</p>","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":"64 1","pages":"1"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9823188/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9527595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biostimulation of tomato growth and biocontrol of Fusarium wilt disease using certain endophytic fungi.","authors":"Amer M Abdelaziz,&nbsp;Mohamed H Kalaba,&nbsp;Amr H Hashem,&nbsp;Mohamed H Sharaf,&nbsp;Mohamed S Attia","doi":"10.1186/s40529-022-00364-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-022-00364-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum L.) suffers from numerous fungal pathogens that cause damage to yeild production qualitatively and quantitatively. One of the most destructive disease of tomato is Fusarium wilt that caused by soil borne fungus called F. oxysporum.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study, the anti-Fusarium capabilities of the foliar application of fungal endophytes extracts have been investigated on tomato under Fusarium challenges. Antifungal assay, inhibition of conidial germination, disease severity, photosynthetic pigments, osmolytes, secondary metabolites, oxidative stress, peroxidase (POD) and polyphenol oxidases (PPO) isozymes were tested for potential resistance of tomato growing under Fusarium infection.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Ethyl acetate extracts of A. flavus MZ045563, A. fumigatus MZ045562 and A. nidulans MZ045561 exhibited antifungal activity toward F. oxysporum where inhibition zone diameters were 15, 12 and 20 mm, respectively. Moreover, extracts of all fungal isolates at concentration 7.5 mg/mL reduced conidia germination from 94.4 to 100%. Fusarium infection caused a destructive effects on tomato plant, high severity desiese index 84.37%, reduction in growth parameters, photosynthetic pigments, and soluble protein. However, contents of proline, total phenol, malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and antioxidant enzymes activity were increased in tomato plants grown under Fusarium wilt. Treatment of healthy or infected tomato plants by ethyl acetate fungal extracts showed improvements in morphological traits, photosynthetic pigments, osmolytes, total phenol and antioxidant enzymes activity. Besides, the harmful impacts of Fusarium wilt disease on tomato plants have also been reduced by lowering MDA and H₂O₂ levels. Also, treated tomato plants showed different responses in number and density of POD and PPO isozymes.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>It could be suggested that application of ethyl acetate extracts of tested fungal endophytes especially combination of A. flavus, A. nidulans and A. fumigatus could be commercially used as safe biostimulation of tomato plants as well as biofungicide against tomato Fusarium wilt disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":"63 1","pages":"34"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9733755/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10378533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"First report of chemical composition and cytotoxicity evaluation of Foraminispora rugosa basidiomata from Brazil.","authors":"V O Garcia,&nbsp;M Fronza,&nbsp;R Von Borowski,&nbsp;G Alves-Silva,&nbsp;A R Zimmer,&nbsp;T Ruaro,&nbsp;S C B Gnoatto,&nbsp;A Dallegrave,&nbsp;R M B Silveira","doi":"10.1186/s40529-022-00363-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-022-00363-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Foraminispora rugosa is a species reported from Brazil, Venezuela, French Guiana, Costa Rica and Cuba. It is a basidiomycete in the Ganodermataceae family. In this study, both chemical composition and cytotoxicity of the ethanolic extract of F. rugosa were investigated for the first time.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the identification of the specimens, and the results of cytotoxicity assays showed that at concentrations of 7.8-500.0 µg/mL the ethanolic extract displayed weak cytotoxicity against the tested cell lines. Five oxylipins were identified by ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight and mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study provides new insights into the current knowledge of bioactive compounds produced by macrofungi, and provides data for future biological assays with relative selectivity and safety.</p>","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":" ","pages":"33"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9701286/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40706457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Correction: Southern Carpathian ultramafic grasslands within the central-southeast European context: syntaxonomic classification and overall eco-coenotic patterns.","authors":"Gheorghe Coldea,&nbsp;Dan Gafta,&nbsp;Gavril Negrean,&nbsp;Adrian Ilie Stoica,&nbsp;Bogdan-Iuliu Hurdu","doi":"10.1186/s40529-022-00362-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-022-00362-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":" ","pages":"32"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9679104/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40718354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identification of promising alfalfa varieties in conditions of the southern forest-steppe zone (Republic of Bashkortostan): a study of economic and biological characteristics.","authors":"Igor Kuznetsov,&nbsp;Ilgiz Asylbaev,&nbsp;Alexey Dmitriev,&nbsp;Asiya Nizaeva,&nbsp;Anvar Shakirzyanov","doi":"10.1186/s40529-022-00361-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-022-00361-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is one of the most important forage crops, but its seed productivity varies from year to year due to weather conditions. Alfalfa is a forage crop rich in nutrients which makes it valuable. The present 5-year study aimed to identify the promising alfalfa varieties based on their economic and biological characteristics, such as high seed productivity, a high yield of forage mass, good quality, and stress resistance.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The study contributes information about the promising varieties of alfalfa characterized by high biomass and seed productivity. Varieties such as P-88044, U-73+149 and S-302 had stable seed/green mass yields regardless of climatic conditions; hence, they may be used for alfalfa selection in the southern forest-steppe regions of Bashkortostan.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The present findings can be used for alfalfa selection in the Republic of Bashkortostan (Russia). In addition, the results will be of interest to crop breeders across the globe.</p>","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":" ","pages":"31"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9588127/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40650010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Southern Carpathian ultramafic grasslands within the central-southeast European context: syntaxonomic classification and overall eco-coenotic patterns.","authors":"Gheorghe Coldea, Dan Gafta, Gavril Negrean, Adrian Ilie Stoica, Bogdan-Iuliu Hurdu","doi":"10.1186/s40529-022-00355-8","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40529-022-00355-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Previous investigations carried out in ultramafic habitats emphasized the greater importance of site conditions over soil toxic metal content for vegetation composition. Very little is known about the floristic structure of the Southern Carpathian ultramafic grasslands and there is no information on the local environmental drivers of their composition and coenotic features. Here, we aim to fill these knowledge gaps by referring to similar phytocoenoses described in the Balkan Peninsula and central Europe. In particular, we searched for: (i) floristic and ecological patterns supporting the classification and taxonomic assignment of these grasslands, and (ii) simple relationships between serpentine vegetation characteristics and its physiographic environment. A total of 120 phytosociological relevés, of which 52 performed in the Southern Carpathians, were analysed through cluster, ordination and regression procedures.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Despite some floristic similarities with their Balkan counterparts, the Southern Carpathian ultramafic grasslands were clustered into four distinct groups, which were assigned to as many new syntaxa: Plantago serpentinae-Armerietum halleri, Asplenio serpentini-Achnatheretum calamagrostis, Minuartio frutescentis-Plantaginetum holostei and Sileno saxifragae-Plantaginetum holostei. The latter was best individualised through the occurrence of several Carpathian endemic taxa. The first two ordination axes were significantly related with the terrain slope/presence of xerophilous species and respectively, with site elevation/presence of calcifugous species. The total plant cover showed a unimodal relationship with respect to site elevation. While controlling for the effect of the sampled area, species richness showed a unimodal response to both elevation and slope of the terrain, although their effects were not singular.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The syntaxonomic distinctiveness of the Southern Carpathian ultramafic grasslands is mainly supported by their overall species composition rather than regional differential species. The main limiting factors driving the composition, cover and species richness of all studied ultramafic grasslands are the water deficit at low elevation and on steep slopes, and the low soil fertility at higher elevations. Our results confirm the previous findings according to which physiographic conditions and, to a lesser extent, soil base nutrients are more important than heavy metal concentrations in structuring the ultramafic vegetation.</p>","PeriodicalId":9185,"journal":{"name":"Botanical Studies","volume":" ","pages":"29"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9556682/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33501672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}