Changes in soil properties during iron mining and in rehabilitating minelands in the Eastern Amazon.

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.

Toxic effects of lead in plants grown in brazilian soils.

Lead (Pb) in soils can be transferred to plants, animals, and even humans. The toxicity of Pb is worrisome and therefore environmental quality criteria, established by laws to support the management of contaminated sites, have been developed to prevent its deleterious effects in a wide range of soils, uses, and occupations. In Brazil, the CONAMA Resolution 420/2009 established that Brazilian states may define their prevention values (PV) for metals in soils. However, the established values should be well studied, since a wide variation of sensitivity of species exposed to Pb is reported and several have a high tolerance. We aimed to evaluate Pb toxicity to validate the suitability of the current Brazilian Pb-prevention value. A trial was carried with two plant species (sorghum and soybean) grown in two tropical soils (Typic Hapludox and Rhodic Acrudox), following ISO 11.269-2 protocols (ISO 2012). The tested soils were contaminated with Pb-acetate at the following concentrations: 0, 200, 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 2200, 2800, and 3200 mg kg-1 of dry soil. Differences regarding species sensitivity were observed and sorghum seemed to be less sensitive to Pb concentration in soils. Soil characteristics as higher clay and organic matter content were responsible for decreasing the overall availability of Pb for plants. Using data from this study and from the literature, we constructed a species sensitivity distribution curve and calculated the HC5 (hazardous concentration to 5% of variables evaluated). The HC5 was 132.5 mg kg-1, which suggests that the PV currently used in Brazil (72 mg kg-1) is sufficiently protective for Brazilian soils.

Evaluation of mercury phytoavailability in Oxisols.

Mercury is a metal which is potentially toxic for the environment. Many factors control its retention in the soil, such as cation exchange capacity, pH, clay content, organic matter, and redox potential. It is important to know the phytotoxic effects of soil Hg to prevent environmental contamination and its entry into the food chain. Several analytical methods are used to measure metal phytoavailability in soils, but none has been reported for Hg in Oxisols, the most common soil class in Brazil and a very important soil class throughout the tropics. The aim of this study was to select the chemical extractor that best correlated the Hg levels in plants and the Oxisols. The soils used were classified as Dystrophic Red-Yellow Oxisol (LVAd) and Dystroferric Red Oxisol (LVdf), which were collected in the 0-0.2-m soil layer. The species selected for cultivation were a monocotyledon, oat (Avena sativa L. cv. São Carlos) and a eudicotyledon, common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Madrepérola). Each test plot was composed of a 500 cm3 pot filled with soil samples contaminated with HgCl2. Treatments were arranged in a completely randomized design, with four replications. The experiment was conducted for 30 days. Mercury contents were separately extracted with the following extractors: USEPA 3051A, Mehlich-1, Mehlich-3, DTPA, and water. Mercury was determined by hydride generation atomic absorption spectroscopy. The extracted contents were correlated with the contents in the tissues of the plants' aerial part by the Pearson correlation. Although it is not considered a standard procedure to evaluate metal phytoavailable contents, the method that presented the best correlations between soil Hg and plant Hg was USEPA 3051A (r = 0.75*). As expected, the worst correlation was with water (r = 0.57* for common bean and r = 0,05ns for oat).