RESEARCH ARTICLE Assembly Processes under Severe Abiotic Filtering: Adaptation Mechanisms of Weed Vegetation to the Gradient of Soil Constraints

Questions: Effects of soil on vegetation patterns are commonly obscured by other environmental factors; clear and general relationships are difficult to find. How would community assembly processes be affected by a substantial change in soil characteristics when all other relevant factors are held constant? In particular, can we identify some functional adaptations which would underpin such soil-induced vegetation response? Location: Eastern Serbia: fields partially damaged by long-term and large-scale fluvial deposition of sulphidic waste from a Cu mine; subcontinental/ submediterranean climate. Methods: We analysed the multivariate response of cereal weed assemblages (including biomass and foliar analyses) to a strong man-made soil gradient (from highly calcareous to highly acidic, nutrient-poor soils) over short distances (field scale). Results: The soil gradient favoured a substitution of calcicoles by calcifuges, an