Tolerance to heavy metals in plants is a model process used to study adaptations to extremely unfavorable environments. One species capable of colonizing areas with high contents of heavy metals is Armeria maritima (Mill.) Wild. A. maritima plants growing in metalliferous areas differ in their morphological features and tolerance levels to heavy metals compared to individuals of the same species growing in non-metalliferous areas. The A. maritima adaptations to heavy metals occur at the organismal, tissue, and cellular levels (e.g., the retention of metals in roots, enrichment of the oldest leaves with metals, accumulation of metals in trichomes, and excretion of metals by salt glands of leaf epidermis). This species also undergoes physiological and biochemical adaptations (e.g., the accumulation of metals in vacuoles of the root’s tannic cells and secretion of such compounds as glutathione, organic acids, or HSP17). This work reviews the current knowledge on A. maritima adaptations to heavy metals occurring in zinc–lead waste heaps and the species’ genetic variation from exposure to such habitats. A. maritima is an excellent example of microevolution processes in plants inhabiting anthropogenically changed areas.

The research was conducted on four patches of thermophilous oak wood in Białowieża Primeval Forest: A – with a woodstand: oak + approx. 30-year-old hornbeam + hornbeam brushwood; B – with a hornbeam stand formed by natural seed fall after logging (ca. 1920) oaks; C – after logging oaks and replanted (ca. 1965) with pine and oak; D – with a natural low-density oak stand. Species composition and seed bank density were estimated using the seedling emergence method. Seedling emergence was observed over two vegetation seasons. Research demonstrated that: 1) the species abundance of the seed banks depends on canopy cover (A, B approx. 50 species; C, D approx. 70 species); 2) the floristical similarity (Sørensen's index) of the seed bank and ground vegetation is higher in the undisturbed patch D (0.50) than in disturbed patches (0.30-0.35); 3) species diversity in plots A, B, C, D (H'=12.5; 13.4; 15.5; 16.9) and seed bank density per m2 (432.5; 958.0; 1486.5; 2268.0) are negatively correlated with the degree of patch shading; 4) the average weight of diaspores in the seed banks of shady plots is lower (A, B approx. 0.003 g) than that of sunny plots (C, D approx. 0.08 g); 5) the share of long-lived diaspores increases in patches after logging.

Thermophilous oak forests are among the most species-rich forest ecosystems of central Europe and a relic of its traditional biocultural landscape. In the absence of grazing, they turned gradually into shaded, mesophilous oak-hornbeam forests. We tested three restoration treatments—annual shrub removal, supervised sheep grazing, and their combination—against a thinned-only control, on twelve 20 × 20 m plots in a Potentillo albae-Quercetum stand in S Poland, surveyed on 50 randomly placed 1 m² subplots per plot in 2016 and again in 2019. Herb layer composition changed significantly in every variant, including the control. The variance explained by the survey year rose from 2.2% under thinning alone to 5.8% under removal with grazing. At the plot level, the herb layer became more light-demanding and less nutrient- and moisture-demanding, and the frequency of disturbance-tolerant species rose. Differences between the four variants were not statistically resolvable with three replicates each. Both grazed variants converged on the target community markedly more strongly than shrub removal alone and an order of magnitude more than the control, with grazing the component associated with the largest change. The characteristic species gained frequency, indicating that the treatments released formerly suppressed resident herbs rather than recruiting new colonists.