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Effect of Drought and Heavy Metal Contamination on Growth and Photosynthesis of Silver Birch Trees Growing on Post-Industrial Heaps

Silver birch trees (Betula pendula Roth) are a pioneering species in post-industrial habitats, and have been associated with an expansive breeding strategy and low habitat requirements. We conducted ecophysiological and dendroclimatological studies to check whether there are any features of which th...

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Autores principales: Sitko, Krzysztof, Opała-Owczarek, Magdalena, Jemioła, Gabriela, Gieroń, Żaneta, Szopiński, Michał, Owczarek, Piotr, Rudnicka, Małgorzata, Małkowski, Eugeniusz
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8750922/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35011615
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells11010053
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author Sitko, Krzysztof
Opała-Owczarek, Magdalena
Jemioła, Gabriela
Gieroń, Żaneta
Szopiński, Michał
Owczarek, Piotr
Rudnicka, Małgorzata
Małkowski, Eugeniusz
author_facet Sitko, Krzysztof
Opała-Owczarek, Magdalena
Jemioła, Gabriela
Gieroń, Żaneta
Szopiński, Michał
Owczarek, Piotr
Rudnicka, Małgorzata
Małkowski, Eugeniusz
author_sort Sitko, Krzysztof
collection PubMed
description Silver birch trees (Betula pendula Roth) are a pioneering species in post-industrial habitats, and have been associated with an expansive breeding strategy and low habitat requirements. We conducted ecophysiological and dendroclimatological studies to check whether there are any features of which the modification enables birch trees to colonise extreme habitats successfully. We characterised the efficiency of the photosynthetic apparatus, the gas exchange, the content of pigments in leaves, and the growth (leaf thickness and tree-ring width) of birch trees on a post-coal mine heap, a post-smelter heap, and a reference site. Birch growth was limited mainly by temperature and water availability during summer, and the leaves of the birch growing on post-industrial heaps were significantly thicker than the reference leaves. Moreover, birch trees growing on heaps were characterised by a significantly higher content of flavonols and anthocyanins in leaves and higher non-photochemical quenching. In addition, birches growing on the post-coal mine heap accumulated a concentration of Mn in their leaves, which is highly toxic for most plant species. Increasing the thickness of leaves, and the content of flavonols and anthocyanins, as well as efficient non-photochemical quenching seem to be important features that improve the colonization of extreme habitats by birches.
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spelling pubmed-87509222022-01-12 Effect of Drought and Heavy Metal Contamination on Growth and Photosynthesis of Silver Birch Trees Growing on Post-Industrial Heaps Sitko, Krzysztof Opała-Owczarek, Magdalena Jemioła, Gabriela Gieroń, Żaneta Szopiński, Michał Owczarek, Piotr Rudnicka, Małgorzata Małkowski, Eugeniusz Cells Article Silver birch trees (Betula pendula Roth) are a pioneering species in post-industrial habitats, and have been associated with an expansive breeding strategy and low habitat requirements. We conducted ecophysiological and dendroclimatological studies to check whether there are any features of which the modification enables birch trees to colonise extreme habitats successfully. We characterised the efficiency of the photosynthetic apparatus, the gas exchange, the content of pigments in leaves, and the growth (leaf thickness and tree-ring width) of birch trees on a post-coal mine heap, a post-smelter heap, and a reference site. Birch growth was limited mainly by temperature and water availability during summer, and the leaves of the birch growing on post-industrial heaps were significantly thicker than the reference leaves. Moreover, birch trees growing on heaps were characterised by a significantly higher content of flavonols and anthocyanins in leaves and higher non-photochemical quenching. In addition, birches growing on the post-coal mine heap accumulated a concentration of Mn in their leaves, which is highly toxic for most plant species. Increasing the thickness of leaves, and the content of flavonols and anthocyanins, as well as efficient non-photochemical quenching seem to be important features that improve the colonization of extreme habitats by birches. MDPI 2021-12-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8750922/ /pubmed/35011615 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells11010053 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sitko, Krzysztof
Opała-Owczarek, Magdalena
Jemioła, Gabriela
Gieroń, Żaneta
Szopiński, Michał
Owczarek, Piotr
Rudnicka, Małgorzata
Małkowski, Eugeniusz
Effect of Drought and Heavy Metal Contamination on Growth and Photosynthesis of Silver Birch Trees Growing on Post-Industrial Heaps
title Effect of Drought and Heavy Metal Contamination on Growth and Photosynthesis of Silver Birch Trees Growing on Post-Industrial Heaps
title_full Effect of Drought and Heavy Metal Contamination on Growth and Photosynthesis of Silver Birch Trees Growing on Post-Industrial Heaps
title_fullStr Effect of Drought and Heavy Metal Contamination on Growth and Photosynthesis of Silver Birch Trees Growing on Post-Industrial Heaps
title_full_unstemmed Effect of Drought and Heavy Metal Contamination on Growth and Photosynthesis of Silver Birch Trees Growing on Post-Industrial Heaps
title_short Effect of Drought and Heavy Metal Contamination on Growth and Photosynthesis of Silver Birch Trees Growing on Post-Industrial Heaps
title_sort effect of drought and heavy metal contamination on growth and photosynthesis of silver birch trees growing on post-industrial heaps
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8750922/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35011615
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells11010053
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