Limited biomass recovery from gold mining in Amazonian forests,Journal of Applied Ecology

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Limited biomass recovery from gold mining in Amazonian forests
Journal of Applied Ecology ( IF 5.0 ) Pub Date : 2020-06-28 , DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13669
Michelle Kalamandeen _{1,

2,

3} , Emanuel Gloor ₁ , Isaac Johnson ₄ , Shenelle Agard ₅ , Martin Katow ₆ , Ashmore Vanbrooke ₇ , David Ashley ₁ , Sarah A. Batterman _{1,

8,

9} , Guy Ziv ₁ , Kaslyn Holder‐Collins ₁₀ , Oliver L. Phillips ₁ , Eduardo S. Brondizio ₁₁ , Ima Vieira ₁₂ , David Galbraith ₁

Affiliation

Gold mining has rapidly increased across the Amazon Basin in recent years, especially in the Guiana shield, where it is responsible for >90% of total deforestation. However, the ability of forests to recover from gold mining activities remains largely unquantified.
Forest inventory plots were installed on recently abandoned mines in two major mining regions in Guyana, and re‐censused 18 months later, to provide the first ground‐based quantification of gold mining impacts on Amazon forest biomass recovery.
We found that woody biomass recovery rates on abandoned mining pits and tailing ponds are among the lowest ever recorded for tropical forests, with close to no woody biomass recovery after 3–4 years.
On the overburden sites (i.e. areas not mined but where excavated soil is deposited), however, above‐ground biomass recovery rates (0.4–5.4 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹) were within the range of those recorded in other secondary forests across the Neotropics following abandonment of pastures and agricultural lands.
Our results suggest that forest recovery is more strongly limited by severe mining‐induced depletion of soil nutrients, especially nitrogen, than by mercury contamination, due to slowing of growth in nutrient‐stripped soils.
We estimate that the slow recovery rates in mining pits and ponds currently reduce carbon sequestration across Amazonian secondary forests by ~21,000 t C/year, compared to the carbon that would have accumulated following more traditional land uses such as agriculture or pasture.
Synthesis and applications. To achieve large‐scale restoration targets, Guyana and other Amazonian countries will be challenged to remediate previously mined lands. The recovery process is highly dependent on nitrogen availability rather than mercury contamination, affecting woody biomass regrowth. The significant recovery in overburden zones indicates that one potential active remediation strategy to promote biomass recovery may be to backfill mining pits and ponds with excavated soil.

中文翻译：

从亚马逊森林金矿开采中回收的生物量有限

近年来，整个亚马逊河流域的金矿开采量迅速增加，尤其是在圭亚那盾构地区，占整个森林砍伐量的90％以上。但是，森林从金矿开采活动中恢复的能力在很大程度上仍未得到量化。
在圭亚那两个主要矿区的最近废弃的矿山上安装了森林清单，并在18个月后进行了人口普查，以提供第一个基于地面的金矿开采对亚马逊森林生物量恢复影响的量化方法。
我们发现，废弃采矿坑和尾矿池中木质生物量的回收率是热带森林有记录以来最低的，而3–4年后几乎没有木质生物量的恢复。
然而，在上覆地盘（即未开采但沉积有挖土的区域）上，地上生物量的回收率（0.4-5.4 Mg ha - ¹ 年^-1）在整个森林的其他次生林中记录的范围内。弃草和耕地后的新热带。
我们的结果表明，由于矿物质流失的土壤生长速度减慢，森林的恢复受到采矿导致的土壤养分特别是氮的严重消耗的限制比汞污染更大。
我们估计，与在农业或牧场等传统土地利用之后积累的碳相比，目前采矿坑和池塘的缓慢恢复速度使亚马逊次级森林的碳固存量每年减少约21,000吨碳。
综合与应用。为了实现大规模的恢复目标，圭亚那和其他亚马逊国家将受到挑战，以补救以前的雷区。回收过程高度依赖氮的有效性而不是汞的污染，从而影响木质生物量的再生。覆盖区的显着恢复表明，促进生物量恢复的一种潜在的主动补救策略可能是用挖出的土壤回填采矿坑和池塘。

更新日期：2020-06-28

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