- Localization
- Poços de Caldas-MG, Brazil - “Retiro Branco” Private Protected Land and “Córrego do Meio” farm, both belonging to the Alcoa Aluminum mining company. Several restoration methods were carried out in this area, most of them involved topsoil transposition in order to recover bauxite mining areas.
- Start
- 2012
- Team
- Prof. Pedro Brancalion (LASTROP), Doutoranda Denise Bizuti (LASTROP), Mestranda Vanessa de Souza Moreno (LASTROP), Mestranda Natali Tostes (LASTROP), Prof. José Carlos Casagrande (UFSCar), Graduanda Thaís Soares (UFSCar), Graduanda Marcela Dinarowski (UFSCar), Prof. Fernando Andreote (ESALQ), Prof. Marcio R. Soares (UFSCar) e Prof. Rubsmar Stolf da (UFSCar)
- Support
- FAPESP, IPT e Alcoa
Objective: evaluate the soil and the recovery of native vegetation in bauxite mining areas where ecological restoration was carried out, focusing on topsoil distribution in deforested areas.
Research description: we analyzed six areas of different ages undergoing restoration by spreading topsoil and planting seedlings, six areas rehabilitated by sowing exotic grasses and planting exotic trees, six mature forests (reference ecosystems) and six recently mined areas.
Ongoing evaluations: Soil: we carried out chemical (pH, organic matter, total carbon, phosphorus, organic phosphorus, Al, H, K, Ca, Mg, sum of bases, cation exchange capacity, base and aluminum saturation); physical (texture, density, macroporosity and microporosity, total porosity, available water capacity, water dispersed clay, percolation and compaction) and microbiological (microbial diversity and basal respiration rate). Vegetation: composition (richness of regional native, non-regional and exotic species, richness of animal dispersed and pioneer species, and equability and diversity indexes) structure (canopy cover, density of trees > 0.5 m height, total density of trees, restored community height, number of strata, basal area and invasive grass cover).
Start date: 2012
Research team: Prof. Dr. Pedro Henrique S. Brancalion, Prof. Dr. José Carlos Casagrande, Graduate Students Denise Bizuti, Vanessa Moreno and Natali Tostes.
Financial Support: FAPESP (São Paulo State Research Foundation) and Alcoa.
