How are the remaining open serpentine soils valuable to people if left in a natural state?

Question

How are the remaining open serpentine soils valuable to people if left in a natural state?

Answer 1

Serpentine soils are very low in nutrients. Many rare species are specially adapted to live on these soils. Also, many invasive non-native plants don't do well in serpentine soils. Which makes areas underlain by serp soils good refuges for some native plants that don't compete well against the invasives. Many regions underlain by natural serpentine soils have a high number of rare (threatened or endangered) plants and insects.

Here are a few websites that might be of interest:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/prsf/nathist1...

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/serp...

http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/dspace...

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob...