**Acknowledgements**

**Populations P (%) h I Ne Na**

Vale site 1 (metal contaminated) 31.25 0.1120 0.1653 1.2035 1.3125 Vale site 2 (metal contaminated 31.25 0.1171 0.1727 1.2061 1.3125 Xtrata 2 (metal contaminated) 27.08 0.0995 0.1467 1.1758 1.2708 Xtrata 3 (metal contaminated) 20.83 0.0630 0.0982 1.1004 1.2083 Vale Tailing (metal contaminated) 35.42 0.0977 0.1552 1.1514 1.3542 Temagami site (control) 29.17 0.0818 0.1284 1.1310 1.2917 Low Water Lake (control) 31.25 0.0812 0.1297 1.1256 1.3125 Mean 31.63 0.1001 0.1528 1.1679 1.3163

**Table 1.** Genetic variability parameters of *Pinus banksiana* populations growing in the Sudbury, Ontario (Canada) area

P represents percentage of polymorphic loci; h, Nei's gene diversity; I, Shannon's information

Sudbury Coniston 72 74 (Sudbury)

Cobalt Cobalt-3 48 46 (Cobalt)

Manitoulin Little Current 70 69 (Manitoulin)

Xtrata 92

Copper Cliff 67 Walden 65

Cobalt-5 44

**Table 2.** Genetic variability within *Deschampsia cespitosa* populations from Northern Ontario generated with ISSR

P represents percentage of polymorphic loci; Sudbury and Cobalt regions were moderately and highly contaminated with metals, respectively. Manitoulin Island region was not conta‐

Plants play an essential role in the remediation of metal enriched soils. Coping mechanisms developed by some group of plants growing on metal contaminated soil facilitate the estab‐ lishment of sustainable ecosystems in areas that would otherwise remain barren. A number

**per site (%)**

68

**Mean polymorphism per region (%)**

index; Ne, effective number of alleles; Na, observed number of alleles.

**Region Site Polymorphism**

(highly contaminated) Cobalt-4 46

minated with metals and was used as a control region.

Lighthouse

(control) Mississagi

based on ISSR data.

74 Environmental Change and Sustainability

(moderately contaminated)

primers.

**4. Conclusion**

We express our appreciation to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for a Postdoctoral Fellowship to M. Mehes-Smith.
