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Juan Mota1*, Encarnacin Merlo1, Hilda Flores Olvera2, Helga Ochoterena Booth2, Juan Pablo Ortz-Brunel

???????1 Department of Biology and Geology, CEI.MAR and CECOUAL, University of Almería, CITE II-B, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, 04120-La Cañada, Almería, Spain 2 Departamento de Botánica, Instituto de Biología, Circuito Exterior s.n., Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México 04510, Mexico 3 Departamento de Botánica y Zoología, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Zapopan 45200, Mexico

The accumulation of mineral elements in the leaves, such as S, Ca, Mg, and Sr, has been proposed as a set of important traits in gypsophile plants to cope with the edaphic and hydric stress posed by gypsisols. Mexico hosts the richest gypsophile flora globally, primarily concentrated in the Chihuahuan Desert and the Sierra Madre Oriental, although gypsum soils are scattered throughout the country. However, many functional aspects related to the adaptations of this flora remain unknown in this biodiversity hotspot, including those associated with the accumulation of the mentioned key mineral elements. To explore nutritional strategies, soil (15) and foliar (30) samples from two species of Selaginella, four ferns, and 24 angiosperms were collected on gypsum soils from the Valle de Tehuacn, the Sierra Madre Occidental (Colima and Jalisco), the Sierra Madre Oriental, and the Chihuahuan Desert. Of these species, 19 are considered gypsophiles, and 11 are gypsovags1. Our initial hypothesis proposed that nutritional patterns are similar among Mexican plants growing on gypsum compared to those known in the Spanish gypsicolous flora, thoroughly investigated from this point of view. Our results confirm the high values for foliar mineral contents, typical of gypsophiles and some gypsovags2. These findings align with the high gypsum contents of Mexican soils; in 2/3 of the cases studied, gypsum contents were higher than 90%. However, we found notably high values for S, Ca, Mg, and Sr in some of foliar samples collected in Mexico. These results are not only consistent with those found for the Spanish flora, but we also extend them to the case of ferns and lycophytes, which are studied here for the first time.   References 1Ortiz-Brunel, J.P. et al. 2023. https://doi.org/10.3390/d15040522 2Merlo, M.E. et al. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.10.001