It is possible to reverse soil degradation caused by bauxite mining through Ecological Restoration?

• Grant number: 12/05767-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: December 01, 2012
• End date: September 05, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Forestry
• Principal Investigator: Pedro Henrique Santin Brancalion
• Grantee: Denise Teresinha Gonçalves Bizuti
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 14/21135-4 - It is possible to reverse soil degradation caused by bauxite mining through ecological restoration?, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Mining is one of the most striking human activities to natural resources, and that can profoundly affect the resilience of ecosystems to the level of soil degradation. Thus, many mined areas are not effectively recovered enough to restore the relevance of biodiversity and ecosystem services, restricting themselves to rehabilitation. However, new methods of ecological restoration have generated promising results even in situations of degradation as intense as the mining, which would revise the minimum levels of environmental quality required in areas that were mined and must undergo a process of recovery as form of mitigation of environmental impacts. The objective of this study is to evaluate the physical recovery, chemical and microbiological soil in areas where environmental recovery process, with different methods after bauxite. Areas of study will be inserted in two places belonging to the ALCOA aluminum Poços de Caldas-MG, which were submitted to different methods of forest restoration and forest rehabilitation after mining. Will be evaluated 2 newly mined areas, 9 restored, 9 rehabilitated and 2 remaining natural. In each area, there shall be four equidistant sampling units and systematically distributed. Each sample unit will correspond to a collection point, this being composed of 15 sub-samples georeferenced, at 0-5, 5-10, 10-20, 20-40, 40-60 cm and 0-10 cm in the profile soil for chemical, physical and microbiological tests, respectively. The chemical parameters evaluated are pH, organic matter (M.O), total carbon, P, Al, Al-H+1, K, Ca, Mg, sum of bases (SB), cation exchange capacity (CEC), by bases (V%) and saturation of aluminum (m%), the physical texture (sand, silt and clay), bulk density, macroporosity and microporosity, total porosity, available water capacity (CAD), water dispersible clay, percolation and compression and microbiological, microbial diversity and rate of respiration. The index of soil quality will be determined by the weighted additive model.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BIZUTI, DENISE T. G.; ROBIN, AGNES; SOARES, THAIS M.; MORENO, VANESSA S.; ALMEIDA, DANILO R. A.; ANDREOTE, FERNANDO D.; CASAGRANDE, JOSE CARLOS; GUILLEMOT, JOANNES; HERRMANN, LAETITIA; MELIS, JULIANO; et al. Multifunctional soil recovery during the restoration of Brazil's Atlantic Forest after bauxite mining. JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, v. 59, n. 9, p. 12-pg., 2022-01-13. (12/05767-5, 14/21135-4, 12/22840-8)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

BIZUTI, Denise Teresinha Gonçalves. Is it possible to reverse soil degradation caused by bauxite mining through forest restoration?. 2016. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALA/BC) Piracicaba.