Analysis of functional characteristics of common plant species in limestone, serpentine and gypsum areas in Erzincan and their relationship with nutritional elements

Plant Functional Characters are defined as any morphological, anatomical, biochemical, physiological or phenological hereditary feature that can be measured from the cell to the whole organism at the individual level and that affects the survival success of plant species by affecting processes such as growth, reproduction and resource use. In the research, the functional characters of common plant species specialized to limestone, serpentine and gypsum in Erzincan and their relationship with nutrient elements were analyzed. In this context, 33 general and functional characters of 28 taxa specialized in gypsum, 26 specialized in limestone and 30 specialized in serpentine were examined by Categorical Discriminant Analysis. According to the analysis results, it was determined that plant height x crown projection, stem appearance, leaf length x width ratio, petal characteristics, flower symmetry, ovary status and fruit type changed according to the bedrock. Other characteristics were found to be similar due to the common physical and chemical compositions of all three bedrocks that negatively affect plant development. According to the laboratory study; it was observed that stem specific density, stem and leaf dry matter ratio were higher in serpentine species. In terms of soil and plant minerals, Mg, Cr, Fe, Mn were higher in serpentine than in gypsum and limestone; Al, K, Cu were higher in limestone than in serpentine and gypsum; Ca was higher in gypsum than in serpentine and limestone. In terms of the examined nutrient elements; positive and negative relationships were determined between the elements separately in the bedrock and shoots with the correlation test.