title: Impacts of explosive compounds on vegetation: A need for community scale investigations.
abstract: Explosive compounds are distributed heterogeneously across the globe as a result of over a century of human industrial and military activity. RDX (hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine) and TNT (2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene) are the most common and most abundant explosives in the environment. Vegetation exhibits numerous physiological and morphological stress responses in the presence of RDX and TNT. Varied stress responses act as physiological filters that facilitate the proliferation of tolerant species and the extirpation of intolerant species. Contaminants alter community composition as they differentially impact plants at each life stage (i.e. germination, juvenile, adult), subsequently modifying larger scale ecosystem processes. This review summarizes the current explosives-vegetation literature, focusing on RDX and TNT as these are well documented in the literature, linking our current understanding to ecological theory. A conceptual framework is provided that will aid future efforts in predicting plant community response to residual explosive compounds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Via
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA. Electronic address: jczinnert@vcu.edu.
authors.forename: Julie C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Zinnert
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D053834:Explosive Agents / Q000633:toxicity*; D018525:Germination / Q000187:drug effects; D010944:Plants / Q000187:drug effects*; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D014227:Triazines / Q000633:toxicity; D014303:Trinitrotoluene / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D053834:Explosive Agents; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D014227:Triazines; D014303:Trinitrotoluene; C009160:cyclonite
keywords: Community; Morphology; Physiology; RDX; TNT