Effects of Highly Acidic Volcanic Soils on Plant Ionome Related to Aluminum Tolerance Strategies: Aluminum Accumulator and Non‐Accumulator Plants

ABSTRACT Acidic soils impose multiple stresses on plants and affect soil nutrient availability. Some elements are essential to many physiological processes within plants. Comprehensive studies on the ionomic profiles in plants are insightful for uncovering plant strategies for nutrient uptake and tolerance to environmental stress. This study aimed to elucidate plant nutrition strategies by comparing the ionomes of plants grown in highly acidic soils, so‐called solfatara fields, and in non‐solfatara fields, with average pH values of 3.89 and 5.29, respectively. A quadrat survey was conducted to investigate the effects of fumaroles, which emit volcanic gases and are characteristic of solfatara fields, on plant ionomes. Our study classified ionomic profiles in solfatara and non‐solfatara fields into two groups: aluminum (Al)‐accumulating and non‐Al‐accumulating plants. Among non‐Al‐accumulating plants, concentrations of manganese, magnesium, and sulfur were similar or higher in solfatara than in non‐solfatara fields. Among Al‐accumulating plants, the concentration of Al in Palhinhaea cernua was higher than in other species, and it did not differ significantly between solfatara and non‐solfatara fields. In the quadrat survey, only four species were found, and their ionomes did not change with distance from the fumarole. The most acidic area had a pH of 2.28, and only Fimbristylis dichotoma subsp. podocarpa was found there. Although it remains unclear whether these patterns reflect species traits or adaptive responses to environmental conditions, the results enable us to hypothesize that manganese, magnesium, and sulfur were associated with tolerance for very acidic soil exhibited by non‐Al‐accumulating plants.