Abstract
Open-cast iron mining causes drastic disturbances in soil properties. Recovery of soil chemical and physical properties is essential for successful revegetation and landscape rehabilitation. To identify changes in soil properties during the mining and revegetation process, soil samples were collected from undisturbed sites represented by forest and ferriferous savannas stocking above iron outcrops, called “cangas,” in open-pit benches, and in rehabilitation chronosequences of iron waste piles in the Carajás Mineral Province (CMP), Eastern Amazon, Brazil. The samples were analyzed for chemical and physical properties. Our results showed that iron mining operations resulted in significant alteration of the chemical soil properties when forest and canga vegetation are suppressed to form open-pit benches or waste piles in the CMP. Mining substrates showed lower contents of soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrients than undisturbed areas of forests and cangas. In order to achieve the success of revegetation, nutrients have been added prior to plant establishment. We have demonstrated how soil fertility changes along with mineland rehabilitation, and the variation among chronosequence was attributable mainly due to contents of SOM, K, and B in the soil. The slight improvement of SOM found in rehabilitated waste piles reinforces the notion that recovery of soil quality can be a slow process in iron minelands in the CMP.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Instituto Tecnológico Vale and Vale for the financial support in the development of this work and for the scholarships provided. The authors are grateful for the logistic support received from the Vale Carajás Environmental Team. S.J.R. thanks the CNPq productivity scholarship (Grant # 307.166/2019-8).
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The authors thank the Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Instituto Tecnológico Vale and Vale for the financial support in the development of this work and for the scholarships provided. The authors are grateful for the logistic support received from the Vale Carajás Environmental Team. S.J.R. thanks the CNPq productivity scholarship (Grant # 307.166/2019–8).
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All authors contributed to the conceptualization and investigation. Silvio J. Ramos: writing – original draft, review, and editing. Markus Gastauer: writing – review and editing. Gabriel C. Martins: writing – review and editing. Rafael S. Guedes: writing – review and editing. Cecilio F. Caldeira: writing – review and editing. Pedro W.M. Souza-Filho: writing – review and editing, project administration, funding acquisition, and supervision. José O. Siqueira: writing – review and editing, project administration, funding acquisition, and supervision.
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Ramos, S.J., Gastauer, M., Martins, G.C. et al. Changes in soil properties during iron mining and in rehabilitating minelands in the Eastern Amazon. Environ Monit Assess 194, 256 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09892-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09892-y