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Seed Bank Conservation and Incipient Seed Development in Orchids Colonizing Mining Wastes: Results of a Field Pilot Experiment

As they represent actual or potential risks to human and environmental safety and health, abandoned mines are a major global problem. The heavy metal-polluted tailings dump of Barraxiutta (Domusnovas, southwestern Sardinia, Italy) is home to a metallicolous population of Epipactis tremolsii (Orchida...

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Autores principales: De Agostini, Antonio, Cogoni, Donatella, Cogoni, Annalena, Vacca, Andrea, Fenu, Giuseppe, Cortis, Pierluigi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9740175/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36501354
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants11233315
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author De Agostini, Antonio
Cogoni, Donatella
Cogoni, Annalena
Vacca, Andrea
Fenu, Giuseppe
Cortis, Pierluigi
author_facet De Agostini, Antonio
Cogoni, Donatella
Cogoni, Annalena
Vacca, Andrea
Fenu, Giuseppe
Cortis, Pierluigi
author_sort De Agostini, Antonio
collection PubMed
description As they represent actual or potential risks to human and environmental safety and health, abandoned mines are a major global problem. The heavy metal-polluted tailings dump of Barraxiutta (Domusnovas, southwestern Sardinia, Italy) is home to a metallicolous population of Epipactis tremolsii (Orchidaceae). A reclamation of the abandoned mine area seems to be approaching, and such an intervention may pose a serious risk for the maintenance of the unique orchid population colonizing the mine wastes. In the present work, the seed packet technique was implemented for the first time to observe orchid seed development in mine wastes. This approach allowed us to explore different seed-based conservation options for the metallicolous orchid population and to gain a deeper grasp of population dynamics and ecology. Four different sowing treatments were set up in the tailing dump and in a near unpolluted site (control site). The field phase of the experiment lasted for 10 months, a period in which the experimental seed bank preservation and incipient seed development were observed and statistically approached. Our findings observed no significant seed loss happening during the experiment, demonstrating the suitability of the seed packet technique to also explore seed bank conservation and development in extreme environmental conditions (i.e., polluted mine wastes). This field method will be a useful tool to further explore the more effective translocation and quasi in situ conservation alternatives for the E. tremolsii metallicolous population. Incipient and site-specific seed development (non-mycorrhizal stage) was observed during the experiment. A plant–soil fungus interaction at the seed level was also observed, the nature of which remains to be ascertained in further studies providing a longer duration for the field phases.
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spelling pubmed-97401752022-12-11 Seed Bank Conservation and Incipient Seed Development in Orchids Colonizing Mining Wastes: Results of a Field Pilot Experiment De Agostini, Antonio Cogoni, Donatella Cogoni, Annalena Vacca, Andrea Fenu, Giuseppe Cortis, Pierluigi Plants (Basel) Article As they represent actual or potential risks to human and environmental safety and health, abandoned mines are a major global problem. The heavy metal-polluted tailings dump of Barraxiutta (Domusnovas, southwestern Sardinia, Italy) is home to a metallicolous population of Epipactis tremolsii (Orchidaceae). A reclamation of the abandoned mine area seems to be approaching, and such an intervention may pose a serious risk for the maintenance of the unique orchid population colonizing the mine wastes. In the present work, the seed packet technique was implemented for the first time to observe orchid seed development in mine wastes. This approach allowed us to explore different seed-based conservation options for the metallicolous orchid population and to gain a deeper grasp of population dynamics and ecology. Four different sowing treatments were set up in the tailing dump and in a near unpolluted site (control site). The field phase of the experiment lasted for 10 months, a period in which the experimental seed bank preservation and incipient seed development were observed and statistically approached. Our findings observed no significant seed loss happening during the experiment, demonstrating the suitability of the seed packet technique to also explore seed bank conservation and development in extreme environmental conditions (i.e., polluted mine wastes). This field method will be a useful tool to further explore the more effective translocation and quasi in situ conservation alternatives for the E. tremolsii metallicolous population. Incipient and site-specific seed development (non-mycorrhizal stage) was observed during the experiment. A plant–soil fungus interaction at the seed level was also observed, the nature of which remains to be ascertained in further studies providing a longer duration for the field phases. MDPI 2022-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9740175/ /pubmed/36501354 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants11233315 Text en © 2022 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
De Agostini, Antonio
Cogoni, Donatella
Cogoni, Annalena
Vacca, Andrea
Fenu, Giuseppe
Cortis, Pierluigi
Seed Bank Conservation and Incipient Seed Development in Orchids Colonizing Mining Wastes: Results of a Field Pilot Experiment
title Seed Bank Conservation and Incipient Seed Development in Orchids Colonizing Mining Wastes: Results of a Field Pilot Experiment
title_full Seed Bank Conservation and Incipient Seed Development in Orchids Colonizing Mining Wastes: Results of a Field Pilot Experiment
title_fullStr Seed Bank Conservation and Incipient Seed Development in Orchids Colonizing Mining Wastes: Results of a Field Pilot Experiment
title_full_unstemmed Seed Bank Conservation and Incipient Seed Development in Orchids Colonizing Mining Wastes: Results of a Field Pilot Experiment
title_short Seed Bank Conservation and Incipient Seed Development in Orchids Colonizing Mining Wastes: Results of a Field Pilot Experiment
title_sort seed bank conservation and incipient seed development in orchids colonizing mining wastes: results of a field pilot experiment
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9740175/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36501354
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/plants11233315
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