Modelling realized niche of metallophyte species along copper and cobalt gradients on Katanga copper hills

In South Central Africa were identified more than 650 plant species tolerant to heavy metals, several of which endemic to Katanga and critically endangered by mining activities. These metallophyte are distributed over a hundred hills containing high copper and cobalt concentrations (20 to 10000 mg/kg for copper and 2 to 1000 mg/kg for cobalt). To understand the response of metallophyte to heavy metals, the ecological niches of 80 cupro-cobaltophytes were modeled with general additive models (GAM). Results show that (1) three groups of species were identified according to their optimum along a metal concentrations gradient and (2) a positive relationship exists between niche amplitude and optimum copper concentration.