Examining urban weed response to elevated salt levels
Stressors from the urban environment cause adverse effects on city-dwelling organisms. While there is evidence that some species are adapting to urban stressors, such as the urban heat island and impervious surfaces, other stressors such as road salt are less studied. We investigated whether plants are adapting to elevated salt concentrations with two common garden experiments using three common…
Urban environments are filled with stressors that can negatively impact city organisms. While some species adapt to challenges like heat and impervious surfaces, the effects of road salt are less understood. To explore this, we conducted two garden experiments with three common weed species: Veronica arvensis, Stellaria media, and Lamium purpureum. We collected seeds from parks in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, using road saltier soils and inner park soils as maternal sources.
Our hypothesis was that plants from roadside soils would withstand salt treatment better than those from park soils. In our germination experiment, we found no significant difference in germination rates between roadside and park lineages of L. purpureum when exposed to salt. However, S. media showed comparable declines in germination between the groups.
In the greenhouse experiment with the F1 generation, roadside V. arvensis lineages showed a reduced adverse reaction to salt treatment compared to park lineages. L. purpureum did not exhibit this difference, but roadside lineages of both species displayed less tissue damage overall.
These results suggest some adaptation to urban salt conditions, but more research on F2 generations is needed to confirm these findings. The complexity of urban environments, with its heterogeneity, plays a significant role in how plants react to salinity.
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