RHODORA, Vol. 111, No. 948, pp. 417–447, 2009 E Copyright 2009 by the New England Botanical Club ORNITHOCOPROPHILOUS PLANTS OF MOUNT DESERT ROCK, A REMOTE BIRD-NESTING ISLAND IN THE GULF OF MAINE, U.S.A. NISHANTA RAJAKARUNA Department of Biological Sciences, San Jose´ State University, One Washington Square, San Jose´, CA 95192-0100 e-mail:
[email protected] NATHANIEL POPE AND JOSE PEREZ-OROZCO College of the Atlantic, 105 Eden Street, Bar Harbor, ME 04609 TANNER B. HARRIS University of Massachusetts, Fernald Hall, 270 Stockbridge Road, Amherst, MA 01003 ABSTRACT. Plants growing on seabird-nesting islands are uniquely adapted to deal with guano-derived soils high in N and P. Such ornithocoprophilous plants found in isolated, oceanic settings provide useful models for ecological and evolutionary investigations. The current study explored the plants foundon Mount Desert Rock (MDR), a small seabird-nesting, oceanic island 44 km south of Mount Desert Island (MDI), Hancock County, Maine, U.S.A. Twenty-seven species of vascular plants from ten families were recorded. Analyses of guano- derived soils from the rhizosphere of the three most abundant species from bird- 2 nesting sites of MDR showed significantly higher (P , 0.05) NO3 , available P, extractable Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn, and significantly lower Mn compared to soils from the rhizosphere of conspecifics on non-bird nesting coastal bluffs from nearby MDI. Bio-available Pb was several-fold higher in guano soils than for background levels for Maine. Leaf tissue elemental analyses from conspecifics on and off guano soils showed significant differences with respect to N, Ca, K, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Pb, although trends were not always consistent.