Mineral composition of leaves and bark in aluminum accumulators in a tropical rain forest in Indonesia

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Abstract
Mineral composition including AI, Ca, Mg, P, S, and Si and relationships between Al and other elements such as Ca, Mg, P, S, and Si in leaves and bark of trees in a tropical rain forest in West Sumatra were studied. Sixty five tree species and 12 unidentified trees were referred to as AI accumulators based on Chenery\s's definition (more than 1 g kg-1 Al in leaves). For most of the Al accumulators, Al concentration in leaves was higher than in bark. However, some members of Euphorbiaceae, Melastomataceae, and Ulmaceae families showed a reverse trend. Most of the non-accumulators also showed a higher Al concentration in bark than in leaves. These results indicated that there was a difference in the mechanism of Al accumulation in tree bodies. Some of the Al accumulators showed an extremely high Al concentration (more than 10 g kg-1) not only in the mature leaves, but also in the new leaves. Analysis of the relationships between the concentration of Al and the other 5 elements in leaves, revealed that Al accumulators could be separated into two groups at the Al concentration of 3 g kg-1. This finding suggested that new criteria based on Al concentration (23 g kg-1) or Al/Ca ratio in leaves could be proposed in order to define Al accumulators, apart from Chenery's criterion. Aluminium accumulators with an Al concentration in leaves lower than 3 g kg-1 (AI accumulators -1) showed the same trend as the non-accumulators in terms of these elemental relationships, while Al accumulators with an Al concentration in leaves higher than 3 g kg-1 (AI accumulators 23 g kg-1) showed a different trend from the non-accumulators. The Al accumulators 23 g kg-1 and the other trees (AI accumulators < 3 g kg-1 and non-accumulators) showed separately positive correlations between the concentrations of AI and Ca (or Mg) in the leaves. This observation seems to be opposite to general findings in plant nutrition, i.e. inhibition of Ca or Mg uptake by AI. A positive correlation between Al and S was also observed for all the trees. The Al accumulators ≥3 g kg-1 showed positive correlations between the concentrations of Al and P (or Si) in the leaves, unlike the other trees. These findings suggested that Al stimulated P, S, or Si accumulation in leaves or Al was transported with P, S, or Si for the Al accumulators ≥3 g kg-1. No negative relationships between Al and the other 5 elements in the leaves were observed for the Al accumulators ≥3 g kg-1.