Soil and Biota of Serpentine: A World View
2009 Northeastern Naturalist 16(Special Issue 5):329–340
Are Oaks Locally Adapted to Serpentine Soils?
Sara Branco*
Abstract - Serpentine soils are extreme habitats known to be involved in processes
of local adaptation and speciation of plants. Here I use a greenhouse reciprocaltransplant
experiment to compile baseline data for describing patterns of serpentine
local adaptation in Quercus ilex subsp. ballota (Holm Oak). I also tested the role of
mycorrhizal fungi on the establishment and growth of seedlings on serpentine and
non-serpentine soil. Non-serpentine seedlings grew more than serpentine seedlings
in all treatments. Plants grew more on non-serpentine soil and mycorrhizal fungi
positively influenced seedling growth. I did not find evidence of better seedling
performance in their home environment, suggesting the absence of local adaptation.
However, I document significant growth differences between serpentine and nonserpentine
seedlings, which suggest physiological differences between seedlings
from these two soil origins.
Introduction
The process of local adaptation leads to the evolution of advantageous
traits in local populations associated with particular environmental conditions
(Williams 1966). Resident genotypes in each local population are
expected to exhibit higher relative fitness on average in their original local
habitat compared to genotypes originated elsewhere (Kawecki and Ebert
2004). Local adaptation has been recognized as an important mechanism
maintaining genetic variation (Hedrick 1986), as well as a crucial player in
initiating the divergence of incipient species (Schluter 2001, Turelli et al.
2001, Via 2001). Tests for patterns of local adaptation rely on good fitness
estimates, a complex parameter that should consider multiple stages of the
individual’s life cycle (Charlesworth 1994). Fitness is difficult to estimate,
particularly in long-lived organisms, leading to the use of less ideal parameters,
such as biomass, as fitness surrogates.
Extreme habitats, such as deserts, hydrothermal vents, hot springs,
hyper-saline waters, and serpentine soils – impose severe conditions on their
inhabitants, and are thus attractive natural systems for evolutionary and ecological
studies. Generally speaking, two strategies allow species to persist
in extreme environments. One is plasticity, i.e., environment-dependent phenotypic
expression (Bradshaw 1965) that confers constitutive tolerance. The
other is specialization, which may range from locally adapted populations
*Committee on Evolutionary Biology, University of Chicago, 1025 East 57th Street,
Culver Hall 402, Chicago, IL 60637; Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 South
Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605; Centro de Investigação de Montanha, Escola
Superior Agrária, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Sta. Apolónia Apartado
1172, Bragança, Portugal; sbranco@uchicago.edu.
330 Northeastern Naturalist Vol. 16, Special Issue 5
(Williams 1966) with habitat-based discontinuous morphological and/or
physiological variation (ecotypes; Turesson 1922) to endemic species that
are obligately associated with their habitats and occur nowhere else.
Heterogeneous soil conditions have been documented as an important
selective pressure for terrestrial plants that can be responsible for divergence
and speciation (Kruckeberg 2002). Serpentine soils in particular are an ideal
system to study patterns of local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity. These
soils are characterized by a unique combination of chemical and physical parameters,
including low essential macro- and micronutrients, an unbalanced
Ca:Mg ratio, and toxic concentrations of heavy metals like Co, Cr, Mg, and
Ni (Roberts and Proctor 1992). Serpentine sites have low plant productivity,
depauperate floras and sparse plant cover, high rates of endemism, and
vegetation types different from those of neighboring areas (Alexander et al.
2007, Baker et al. 1992, Brady et al. 2005, Brooks 1987). They are found
worldwide and are patchily distributed, covering about 1% of the earth’s
surface (Proctor 1999, Roberts and Proctor 1992). The evolutionary and ecological
significance of serpentine soils has been extensively studied in plants.
Adaptive divergence in species found in both serpentine and non-serpentine
soils has been demonstrated via reciprocal transplant experiments both in
field and greenhouse conditions (e.g., Kruckeberg 1950, Sambatti and Rice
2006, Wright 2007, Wright et al. 2006). These studies subjected plants from
serpentine and non-serpentine populations to native and non-native soil and
described plants as having higher fitness when grown in their native soil,
indicating the existence of serpentine local adaptation.
The vast majority of vascular plants (including plants growing in serpentine
soils) are associated with symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi (Smith and
Read 2008). These fungi mediate nearly all water and nutrient uptake by
host plant roots, providing a larger absorption area for root systems and
enabling plants to obtain water and nutrients when these resources are not
readily available (Smith and Read 2008). In return, fungi obtain sugars,
essential for their subsistence. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are known
to play an important role in plant establishment under stressful conditions
(Jentschke and Godbold 2000, Panaccione et al. 2001, Roberts and Proctor
1992) because they can filter toxic components that might occur in the soil,
preventing their accumulation in plants (Hartley et al. 1997). This relationship
may be particularly important in serpentine environments, given their
typically high concentrations of heavy metals such as nickel. To this extent,
ECM fungi may play an especially significant role in the establishment and
survivorship of seedlings on serpentine soils, and knowledge of the effects
of native fungal ECM fungal communities on plant fitness at different stages
of life history are therefore important for a full understanding of the patterns
of serpentine local adaptation in mycorrhizal plants.
This study is a preliminary effort to gather baseline data on local adaptation
to serpentine soils in Quercus ilex subsp. ballota (Desf) Samp (Holm
Oak), a widespread Mediterranean evergreen oak and the only tree found to
2009 S. Branco 331
colonize serpentine sites in northeastern Portugal. I conducted a greenhouse
reciprocal transplant experiment and measured serpentine and non-serpentine
seedling establishment and early growth in native and non-native soil
with and without the native ECM fungal communities. As comprehensive
studies on local adaptation require fitness estimates, which are extremely
difficult to measure for long-lived organisms such as oak trees, I based this
study on seedling growth data. I expected to find seedlings to show more
growth on their native soil, suggesting serpentine local adaptation. I also
predicted mycorrhizal fungi to enhance seedling performance in general and
seedlings to show a greater growth response on serpentine compared to nonserpentine
soil in the presence of fungi (i.e., plants relying more on fungi in
serpentine soil).
Methods
Experimental set-up
Soil. I collected serpentine and non-serpentine soil from two Holm Oak
forests in the Bragança region (Portugal), Rabal (N41°52.262, W006°44.682)
and Serra da Nogueira (N41°47.965, W006°53.924). These two forests were
approximately 10 km apart. Upon collection, serpentine and non-serpentine
soils were separately mechanically homogenized using a concrete mixer.
Soil analyses were conducted for both the Serra da Nogueira and Rabal
sites in 2005. I collected four soil samples in each forest, with each sample
consisting of the combination of 5 soil sub-samples collected 5 m apart.
Standard soil parameters, macro- and micronutrients, and heavy metal
content were analyzed for each sample (pH, N, C, Al, P, K, Ca, Mg, B, Mn,
Zn, Cu, Fe, Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, NO3-N, cation exchange capacity, percent base
saturation for K, Mg, and Ca). Analyses were conducted at the University
of Massachusetts Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Laboratory (Amherst, MA,
USA), except for C and N, which were performed at (Argonne National
Laboratory Argonne, IL,USA), and pH, which was measured in the Soil
Laboratory of Escola Superior Agrária de Bragança (Portugal). I compared
the two soil types using a standard one-way ANOVA (implemented in R
Development Core Team, version 2.6.2).
Acorns. I collected Holm Oak acorns from a serpentine site (Rica Fe,
N41°49.66 W006°45.43) and a non-serpentine site (Quintas de Seara,
N41°45.45 W006°43.27) approximately 10 km apart in Bragança, Portugal,
in November 2006. Acorns were collected from the same forests as the soils;
however, because 2006 was a very wet year, most acorns were not in good
condition and failed to germinate. As a result, I used acorns from neighboring
serpentine and non-serpentine forests (approximately 10 km away).
Acorns were stratified until the beginning of the experiment.
Reciprocal-transplant experiment. Acorns were germinated in sand in February
2007. In May 2007, I transplanted the seedlings to 1-L pots with sterile
and non-sterile serpentine and non-serpentine soil. Sterile soil was generated
using an autoclave (45 min, 121 ºC, 1 kg/cm2). This sterile soil was used for
332 Northeastern Naturalist Vol. 16, Special Issue 5
growing the control seedlings so that the importance of ECM fungi on seedling
establishment and growth on serpentine soil could be assessed.
During the transplant, I trimmed the root system of each seedling to its
shoot length and excised vestigial acorns to induce mycorrhizal infection
and minimize maternal effects. I also visually inspected the seedling’s roots
to assure that they were not already infected with ECM fungi. Root tips
showed a very homogenous morphology, with abundant root hairs and no
Hartig nets, indicating they were free of ECM fungal infection. Furthermore,
using molecular techniques, I did not find ECM fungal DNA in 6 random
root tips. I used the fungal specific primers ITS1F and ITS4 (Gardes and
Bruns 1996, White et al. 1990) and the PCR and sequencing protocols of
Avis et al. (2003).
Seedlings were kept in the greenhouse facilities of Escola Superior
Agrária de Bragança at 26 ºC and 75% humidity, and were manually watered
with no fertilization weekly through September 2007, when measurements
were taken. Because this was an ongoing experiment, I did not harvest the
seedlings at that time. Instead, I transplanted the seedlings to other soil
types. During this procedure, I visually inspected all root systems, and it
was very clear that all the seedlings grown on non-sterile soil were colonized
by ECM fungi (there was fungal tissue covering the root tips and, in some
cases, abundant mycelium in the soil). Plants grown on sterile soil showed
homogenous naked roots similar to the ones described in the beginning of
the experiment, indicating no ECM fungal infection. These observations
indicate that the autoclaving protocol was effective in eliminating the ECM
fungi present in the soil and that there were no fungal contaminations during
the time of the experiment.
Seedling early growth measurements
Oaks are long-lived plants, and their fitness is difficult to estimate. Here,
I followed many authors’ approach in using biomass as a surrogate for fitness
(e.g., Jenkinson 1977, Wright 2007). Because this was an ongoing
experiment and the plants were not harvested in the end, seedling biomass
was not measured directly. I tested seedling stem height, number of leaves,
root length, number of internodes and collar diameter as surrogates for plant
biomass by regressing the dried weight of 25 seedlings to each of these parameters.
I found seedling stem height to be best correlated with total dry
seedling weight (regression analysis performed in R [R Development Core
Team, version 2.6.2]; R2 = 0.695, P < 0.001, n = 25). Stem heights were first
measured in the beginning of the experiment (in May 2007) and then in September
2007, when seedlings were 8 months old.
Statistical analysis
Seedling stem heights measured in September 2007 and relative growth
rate (RGR = [stem height September - stem height May]/number of days
experiment run) were square root transformed to meet ANOVA assumptions
and compared across treatments using a two-way ANOVA analysis with
2009 S. Branco 333
acorn origin (serpentine and non-serpentine) and soil type (serpentine, nonserpentine,
sterile serpentine, sterile non-serpentine) as factors. I used type
III sums of squares (Yates 1934) to account for unbalanced sampling. The
effect of ECM fungi in serpentine and non-serpentine soil and on serpentine
and non-serpentine plants was tested using a priori contrasts (Sokal and
Rohlf 1995). Adjustments were made for unequal sample size and nonorthogonality
(Dunn-Sidák method). I also conducted two-way ANOVA
analyses on the data from non-sterile soil and sterile soil separately.
Differences in seedling stem height measured in the beginning of the experiment
(May 2007) were tested with a Kruskal Wallis rank sum test since
data violated ANOVA assumptions of homogeneity of variances and residual
normality even after transformation.
All analyses were implemented in R (R Development Core Team,
version 2.6.2).
Results
Soil analyses show that the serpentine and non-serpentine soils were
different. The serpentine soil showed the typical low Ca:Mg ratio and high
levels of metals (Table 1).
Only 7 out of the 209 seedlings died during the 6 months of exposure to
serpentine and non-serpentine soil (Table 2). This result indicates that both
Table 1. Average soil chemical composition of serpentine and non-serpentine (with standard
deviations; ppm = parts per million; % BS = percent base saturation, * = significant P value of
the one-way ANOVA analysis after a sequential Bonferroni correction).
Soil parameter Serpentine soil Non-serpentine soil
Al (ppm) 12.3 (± 5.4) 28.8 (± 0.7)
B (ppm)* 1.1 (± 0.1) 0.3 (± 0.0)
C (%)* 10.7 (± 1.6) 1.6 (± 0.2)
Ca (%BS) 15.9 (± 2.0) 42.9 (± 3.3)
Ca (ppm)* 1014.3 (± 89.5) 1349.8 (± 83.4)
Ca/Mg* 0.4 (± 0.0) 2.0 (± 0.0)
Cation exchange capacity* 32.3 (± 2.1) 16.6 (± 0.9)
Cd (ppm)* 0.38 (± 0.1) 0.0 (± 0.0)
Cr (ppm)* 0.5 (± 0.1) 0.2 (± 0.1)
Cu (ppm) 0.1 (± 0.1) 0.4 (± 0.1)
Fe (ppm)* 23.3 (± 4.8) 6.9 (± 0.8)
K (%BS)* 0.7 (± 0.2) 2.6 (± 0.40
K (ppm)* 81.3 (± 21.7) 154.5 (± 26.2)
Mg (%BS)* 60.4 (± 5.7) 22.4 (± 8.6)
Mg (ppm)* 2378.8 (± 327.6) 430.5 (± 171.8)
Mn (ppm) 180.6 (± 44.0) 117.8 (± 7.1)
N (%) 0.5 (± 0.1) 0.2 (± 0.0)
Ni (ppm)* 29.8 (± 8.1) 1.0 (± 0.4)
NO3-N (ppm) 7.8 (± 3.3) 1.3 (± 0.0)
P (ppm)* 27.3 (± 3.9) 7.5 (± 2.1)
Pb (ppm) 31.7 (± 0.3) 30.5 (± 0.0)
pH* 6.1 (± 0.1) 5.3 (± 0.1)
Zn (ppm) 1.9 (± 0.9) 1.1 (± 0.5)
334 Northeastern Naturalist Vol. 16, Special Issue 5
serpentine and non-serpentine plants can tolerate non-native soil under
greenhouse conditions, at least during their first months of existence. However,
I found significant differences in seedling growth across the different
treatments. Analyses on seedling stem height and relative growth rate provided
identical results, so here I report only seedling stem height results.
Overall, non-serpentine seedlings grew more and faster than serpentine
seedlings (Table 3, Figs. 1 and 2), plants grew less and slower on serpentine
soil compared to non-serpentine soil (Fig. 1, Table 3), and seedlings
performed poorly in sterile soil (Table 3).
The two-way ANOVA with the four soil types as factors showed
that both plant origin and soil type were significant terms in the model
Table 2 . Number of Quercus ilex subsp. ballota (Holm Oak) seedlings transplanted to each of
the four soil treatments. † = 1 seedling died during the experiment; †† = 2 seedlings died during
the experiment.
Serpentine plants Non-serpentine plants Total
Serpentine soil 42†† 42† 84
Non-serpentine soil 43† 44† 87
Sterile serpentine soil 8†† 10 18
Sterile non-serpentine soil 9 11 20
Total 102 107
Table 3. Average stem height (in cm) for serpentine and non-serpentine seedlings grown in each
of the four treatments (with standard deviations).
Serpentine plants Non-serpentine plants
Serpentine soil 3.26 (± 0.62) 3.77 (± 0.66)
Non-serpentine soil 3.70 (± 0.54) 4.35 (± 0.75)
Sterile serpentine soil 2.54 (± 0.28) 3.57 (± 0.44)
Sterile non-serpentine soil 2.70 (± 0.54) 3.12 (± 0.52)
Figure 1. Least square
means (LSM) and
95% confidence intervals
of serpentine
and non-serpentine
Quercus ilex subsp.
ballota (Holm Oak)
seedlings’ stem height
measurements on the
non-sterile soil treatments
(data squareroot
transformed).
Solid line = nonserpentine
seedlings;
dashed line = serpentine
seedelings; * =
averages significantly
different.
2009 S. Branco 335
(Table 4), indicating differences in growth between serpentine and nonserpentine
plants and between plants on serpentine and non-serpentine soil.
However, the interaction term was not significant, indicating the effect
of plant origin was not dependent on soil type and vice versa. The a priori
contrasts revealed growth differences between the two plant origins in both
serpentine and non-serpentine soil, but revealed no significant differences
between serpentine seedling growth in serpentine and non-serpentine soil or
between non-serpentine seedling growth in serpentine and non-serpentine
soil (Table 4).
The two-way ANOVA analysis on non-sterile soil growth revealed soil
type and acorn origin as significant factors, but a non-significant interaction
(Fig. 1 and Table 5). There was reduced growth on sterile soil compared to
non-sterile soil (Table 3). On sterile soil, non-serpentine plants still tended
to grow more and faster compared to serpentine. However, growth was only
significantly different on serpentine soil, as soil type was not a significant
factor in the analysis (Fig. 2, Table 6).
Figure 2. Least square
means (LSM) and
95% confidence intervals
of serpentine
and non-serpentine
Quercus ilex subsp.
ballota (Holm Oak)
seedlings’ stem height
measurements on the
sterile soil treatments
(data square-root
transformed). Solid
line = non-serpentine
seedlings; dashed line
= serpentine seedlings;
* = averages
significantly different.
Table 4. Two-way ANOVA on seedling stem heights with type III sums of squares results (two
seedling origins and four soil types) including the a priori test results (α = 0.013). * = signifi-
cant factor.
d.f. SS F P
Soil 3 28.83 21.13 <0.013*
Acorn 1 11.97 25.43 <0.013*
Soil x Acorn 3 0.96 0.68 0.567
Non-serpentine vs serpentine plants on non-serpentine soil 1 29.77 63.21 <0.013*
Non-serpentine vs serpentine plants on serpentine soil 1 10.79 22.91 <0.013*
Non-serpentine plants on non-serpentine vs serpentine soil 1 17.42 36.99 0.99
Serpentine plants on non-serpentine vs serpentine soil 1 13.13 27.88 0.99
Residuals 196 92.25
336 Northeastern Naturalist Vol. 16, Special Issue 5
The Kruskal Wallis rank sum test analysis performed on the seedling
stem height in the beginning of the experiment (May 2007) revealed signifi-
cant differences between heights of serpentine and non-serpentine seedlings,
with non-serpentine plants being taller (χ2 = 287.6979, d.f. = 1, P < 0.05).
Discussion
There are numerous examples of serpentine local adaptation in plants
(e.g., Kruckeberg 1950, Sambatti and Rice 2006, Wright 2007, Wright et. al.
2006). In these cases, serpentine ecotypes exhibit higher fitness when growing
on serpentine soil, indicating adaptation to the low Ca/Mg ratio and high
levels of heavy metals.
Holm Oak is a widespread oak and the only tree able to grow on serpentine
soils in northeastern Portugal, though it is not known if serpentine populations
are locally adapted. The greenhouse results reported here are a first
effort to provide a baseline for determining the existence of serpentine local
adaptation in this oak. Although seedling early growth under greenhouse
conditions may not be a good measure of plant fitness, making it difficult to
draw conclusions on serpentine local adaption, seedlings did not grow more
on their native soil (Fig. 1), suggesting lack of local adaptation. However,
given the extreme chemical and physical conditions of serpentine soils,
slower plant growth may be selected for, and very often plant adaptation to
serpentine soils includes slow growth and reduced plant stature (Brady et. al.
2005). Nevertheless, the significant growth differences reported here suggest
physiological variation between seedlings originating on serpentine versus
non-serpentine soil. Non-serpentine seedlings grew consistently and signifi-
cantly taller and faster than serpentine seedlings (Figs. 1 and 2, Table 3),
even when exposed to serpentine soil.
An interesting example where growth was used to describe serpentine
local adaptation in a tree is the study on Pinus ponderosa P.&C. Lawson
Table 5. Two-way ANOVA on seedling stem height results (two seedling origins and two nonsterile
soil types). * = significant factor.
d.f. SS F P
Soil type 1 10.73 20.69 <0.05*
Acorn origin 1 14.53 28.01 <0.05*
Soil x acorn 1 0.22 0.43 0.51
Residuals 85.08 164.00
Table 6. Two-way ANOVA on seedling stem height results (two seedling origins and two sterile
soil types). * = significant factor.
d.f. SS F P
Soil type 1 0.16 0.72 0.40
Acorn origin 1 4.31 19.22 <0.05*
Soil x acorn 1 0.69 3.06 0.09
Residuals 32 7.17
2009 S. Branco 337
(Ponderosa Pine) in California by Wright (2007). An analysis of 36 years
of growth data from a field reciprocal-transplant experiment on serpentine
and non-serpentine trees detected serpentine pine ecotypes, but only after
20 years of growth. Jenkinson (1977) conducted a short-term greenhouse
seedling reciprocal-transplant study, using the same families of trees as
Wright (2007). He found no evidence for serpentine ecotypic variation
based on stem height, indicating long time periods might be necessary to
unveil patterns of local adaptation in long-lived organisms. This example
demonstrates how short-term experiments can be misleading, as the patterns
might take many years to be detectable. Wright (2007) did not find
final reduced plant stature in the pines from serpentine soils. However,
when reduced stature is an adaptation to serpentine, biomass estimates are
probably not appropriate to reveal serpentine ecotypes, as they are not necessarily
positively correlated with fitness.
The results reported here are based on growth of 8-month-old seedlings
in a greenhouse environment, which may or may not be a good surrogate for
lifetime fitness. However, they do reveal differences in serpentine and nonserpentine
oak populations that could be derived from a process of genetic
differentiation and local adaptation. They also suggest the need for further
investigation. For a definite test, all the seedlings should be grown until
adulthood in their home and foreign environments (in the field) and fitness
should be assessed as the ability of individuals to propagate their genes.
Such an approach would definitely clarify the existence of oak serpentine
local adaptation.
Maternal effects can also explain the results found here. Maternal effects
can be defined as the contribution of mother trees to offspring phenotype
beyond the equal chromosomal contribution expected from each parent.
These can have a substantial influence on an individual’s phenotype at early
stages. Such effects carry through from germination to early seedling stages,
but diminish over time as the offspring’s genotype begins to contribute
significantly to seedling subsistence (Roach and Wulff 1987). Oak trees produce
big seeds that provide substantial resources for germination and early
growth, and maternal effects could account for at least part of the results reported
in this study. The serpentine and non-serpentine seedling stem height
differences detected during transplant onto serpentine and non-serpentine
soils might derive from differences in maternal investment across soil types,
as trees growing on more fertile non-serpentine soil might produce acorns
with more resources inducing better seedling performance. Seedling growth
differences right after germination did not derive from differences in soil
growth environment, as all plants were grown in the same sand medium.
However, as the acorns were excised when seedlings were transplanted,
before the endosperm was exhausted, growth response to soil type could be
expected to be less influenced by maternal effects. Removing the acorns induced
seedlings to depend on their own genotype earlier than normal. Also,
analyses on seedling relative growth rate, which showed identical results to
338 Northeastern Naturalist Vol. 16, Special Issue 5
final seedling height, take possible maternal effects into consideration, since
they refer only to the period after the acorn was excised and take into account
initial differences in serpentine and non-serpentine performance.
Seedlings showed higher stem heights and relative growth rate when
growing on non-sterile non-serpentine soil (table 3). This result is not surprising
since it is well known that serpentine-adapted plants tend to perform
better on non-serpentine soils when not in competition with non-serpentine
plant communities (Krukeberg 1950, 1954), suggesting a trade-off between
serpentine specialization and competitive ability (Brady et al. 2005). I did
not specifically test for competitive ability; however, future experiments
could do so by growing seedlings together with serpentine and non-serpentine
plant communities in microcosms or field sites.
It was clear that autoclaving soil was an effective way to remove ECM
fungi from the soil. This procedure might have undesired consequences, such
as changing the soil chemistry (Salonius et al. 1967), which may affect plant
growth. However, the shorter stem heights detected on sterile soil compared
to non-sterile soil (Table 3) support the long-known fact that ECM fungi
positively influence plant growth (Smith and Read 2008). These fungi play
an important role in plant nutrition, explaining why seedlings not associated
with fungi did poorly when compared to colonized seedlings. It is interesting
that soil type was not a significant factor in the analyses of growth in sterile
soil alone (Fig. 2, Table 6), suggesting that fungi are equally important for
seedling establishment and early growth in serpentine and non-serpentine
habitats. The expectation that oak seedlings rely more on ECM fungi when
growing on serpentine soils was therefore not validated.
More research is needed to assess the existence of local adaptation in
Holm Oak to serpentine soils. Although reciprocal transplants or common
garden experiments comparing the fitness of organisms in their original
habitats and under different environmental conditions are the most common
approaches to detect local adaptation, these methods are difficult to implement
for long-lived organisms. Other approaches, like documenting the
genetic structure of populations, might provide insightful results. Clarification
on the existence of local adaptation patterns is not only of evolutionary
interest, but can contribute to applied fields such as conservation and restoration.
Documenting diversity and specialization associated with these habitats
contributes to delineating priorities when creating conservation programs. It
also provides guidelines for effective restoration of serpentine sites, since
serpentine ecotypes should be favored when recovering serpentine habitats.
Acknowledgments
I thank R. Boyd and N. Rajakaruna for editing this special issue; A. Martins for
onsite support; C. Aguiar, R. Dias, M. Matos, and A. Pimentel for help in the field;
M. Fitzsimons for help with statistical analyses; and D. Eaton, M. Fitzsimons, M.
Nelsen, R. Ree, J. Wright, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier
drafts. This research was conducted at the Escola Superior Agrária de Bragança
2009 S. Branco 339
greenhouse facilities and Biology Department and would not have been possible
without the support of their staff. Financial support was available from Fundação
Calouste Gulbenkian (Portugal) and the University of Chicago Hinds Fund (USA).
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