A systematic assessment of the occurrence of trace element hyperaccumulation in the flora of New Caledonia Vidiro Gei1, Sandrine Isnard2,3, Peter D. Erskine1, Guillaume Echevarria1,4, Bruno Fogliani5, Tanguy Jaffré2,3, Antony van der Ent1,4* 1Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia 2botAnique et Modelisation de l’Architecture des Plantes et des végétation (AMAP), Université Montpellier, IRD, CIRAD, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier, France 3botAnique et Modelisation de l’Architecture des Plantes et des végétation (AMAP), IRD, Herbier de Nouvelle-Calédonie, Nouméa, New Caledonia 4Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, Université de Lorraine – INRAE, F54000 Nancy, France 5Équipe ARBOREAL (AgricultuRe BiOdiveRsité Et vALorisation), Institut Agronomique néo-Calédonien (IAC), 98890 Païta, New Caledonia *Corresponding author. E-mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT New Caledonia is a global biodiversity hotspot known for its metal hyperaccumulator plants. X-ray fluorescence technology (XRF) has enabled non-destructive and quantitative determination of elemental concentrations in herbarium specimens from the ultramafic flora of the island. Specimens belonging to six major hyperaccumulator families (Cunoniaceae, Phyllanthaceae, Salicaceae, Sapotaceae, Oncothecaceae and Violaceae) and one to four specimens per species of the remaining ultramafic taxa in the herbarium were measured. XRF scanning included a total of c. 11 200 specimens from 35 orders, 96 families, 281 genera and 1484 species (1620 taxa) and covered 88.5% of the ultramafic flora. The study revealed the existence of 99 nickel hyperaccumulator taxa (65 known previously), 74 manganese hyperaccumulator taxa (11 known previously), eight cobalt hyperaccumulator taxa (two known previously) and four zinc hyperaccumulator taxa (none known previously).