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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Soil arthropod community responses to restoration in areas impacted by iron mining tailings deposition after Fundão dam failure
AU - Ribeiro, Letícia Gonçalves
AU - Silva, Aline Oliveira
AU - Vaz, Kátia Augusta
AU - dos Santos, Jessé Valentim
AU - Nunes, Cássio Alencar
AU - Carneiro, Marco Aurélio Carbone
PY - 2023/10/12
Y1 - 2023/10/12
N2 - In 2015, the failure of the Fundão dam in Mariana, Brazil released ~43 million m 3 of iron mining tailings into the environment. Despite restoration initiatives in the following years, few studies-and most focused on revegetation-have evaluated the effectiveness of the restoration process in areas impacted by the disaster. We aimed to evaluate the responses of the arthropod community in areas impacted by iron mining tailings deposition from the Fundão dam that is in the restoration process. We defined sampling units in the riparian zone of the Gualaxo do Norte River, which is under restoration, and in a native not impacted riparian zone. We collected soil arthropods using pitfall traps and sampled environmental variables in the same sites. We used generalize least squares models (GLS) to test if the restored areas already presented values of arthropod diversity and functional group abundance similar to the reference area and to test which environmental variables are influencing arthropod diversity. We also tested how large the differences of arthropod community composition between the study areas and used the index of indicator species (IndVal) to verify which species could be used as an indicator of reference or restoration areas. The diversity of arthropods and the functional groups of detritivores and omnivores were higher in the native riparian zone. Understory density, soil density, organic matter content, and microbial biomass carbon were the environmental variables that significantly explained the diversity and species composition of arthropods. We show that restoration areas still have different soil arthropod diversity values and community composition when compared to reference areas. Evaluating the response of the arthropod community to the restoration process and long-term monitoring are essential to achieve a satisfactory result in this process and achieve a self-sustaining ecosystem.
AB - In 2015, the failure of the Fundão dam in Mariana, Brazil released ~43 million m 3 of iron mining tailings into the environment. Despite restoration initiatives in the following years, few studies-and most focused on revegetation-have evaluated the effectiveness of the restoration process in areas impacted by the disaster. We aimed to evaluate the responses of the arthropod community in areas impacted by iron mining tailings deposition from the Fundão dam that is in the restoration process. We defined sampling units in the riparian zone of the Gualaxo do Norte River, which is under restoration, and in a native not impacted riparian zone. We collected soil arthropods using pitfall traps and sampled environmental variables in the same sites. We used generalize least squares models (GLS) to test if the restored areas already presented values of arthropod diversity and functional group abundance similar to the reference area and to test which environmental variables are influencing arthropod diversity. We also tested how large the differences of arthropod community composition between the study areas and used the index of indicator species (IndVal) to verify which species could be used as an indicator of reference or restoration areas. The diversity of arthropods and the functional groups of detritivores and omnivores were higher in the native riparian zone. Understory density, soil density, organic matter content, and microbial biomass carbon were the environmental variables that significantly explained the diversity and species composition of arthropods. We show that restoration areas still have different soil arthropod diversity values and community composition when compared to reference areas. Evaluating the response of the arthropod community to the restoration process and long-term monitoring are essential to achieve a satisfactory result in this process and achieve a self-sustaining ecosystem.
KW - Animals
KW - Arthropods
KW - Brazil
KW - Ecosystem
KW - Environmental Monitoring
KW - Iron
KW - Mining
KW - Rivers
KW - Soil
U2 - 10.1007/s10661-023-11843-0
DO - 10.1007/s10661-023-11843-0
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 37828343
AN - SCOPUS:85174141721
VL - 195
SP - 1299
JO - Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
JF - Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
SN - 0167-6369
IS - 11
M1 - 1299
ER -