Abstract

Metal pollution is a long-term and high scale environmental disturbance that can cause serious effects on soil health, biodiversity and human communities. One of the alternatives to rehabilitate these areas is phytostabilization, a technique in which plant species are used to decrease the availability of potentially dangerous metals to the environment. However, in metal affected areas from arid and semiarid ecosystems, a new set of abiotic limitations are introduced. High temperatures, drought, erosion and soil salinization are some of the conditions that plants have to endure in order to survive and grow in these highly disturbed systems. Recognition of the multiple stressors present in these systems led to necessity of plant candidates with a broad range of tolerances. In response to this challenge, halophyte species were proposed for the phytostabilization of arid and semiarid areas. In this chapter, I review the main limitations posed by metal enriched sites areas from arid and semiarid ecosystems and how they translate into abiotic limitations for plant development. After, I will present the main physiological traits that allow halophytes to tolerate the ionic and osmotic components of metal stress and how these strategies change when combined with the abiotic stresses present in arid and semiarid ecosystems. Finally, I will discuss field assays where halophyte species have been successfully grown in contaminated areas in challenging ecosystems.