Land salinization, resulting from the ongoing climate change phenomena, is having an increasing impact on coastal ecosystems like salt marshes. Although halophyte species can live and thrive in high salinities, they experience differences in their salt tolerance range, being this a determining factor in the plant distribution and frequency throughout marshes. Furthermore, intraspecific variation to NaCl response is observed in high-ranging halophyte species at a population level. The present study aims to determine if the environmental history, namely heavy metal pre-conditioning, can have a meaningful influence on salinity tolerance mechanisms of Spartina patens, a highly disperse grass invader in the Mediterranean marshes. For this purpose, individuals from pristine and heavy metal contaminated marsh populations were exposed to a high-ranging salinity gradient, and their intraspecific biophysical and biochemical feedbacks were analyzed. When comparing the tolerance mechanisms of both populations, S. patens from the contaminated marsh appeared to be more resilient and tolerant to salt stress, this was particularly present at the high salinities. Consequently, as the salinity increases in the environment, the heavy metal contaminated marsh may experience a more resilient and better adapted S. patens community. Therefore, the heavy metal pre-conditioning of salt mash populations appears to be able to create intraspecific physiological variations at the population level that can have a great influence on marsh plant distribution outcome.
Keywords: halophytes; intraspecific variability; osmotic stress; pre-conditioning.