Gold extraction in the Amazon is removing so much water from the soil that it is making it too hot and dry so that the plants can survive.
A study is done in the Nature Communications Earth & Environment revealed that the gold extraction is (literally) drying the Amazon.
Researchers found that suction extraction not only degraded the soil, but also drains the moisture and retains heat, creating extreme conditions in which Trees are not being able to survive.
Illegal gold extraction currently affects many regions of the Amazon, including the Peruo Brazilo Suriname and Guiana.
“It’s like trying to grow a tree in an oven”these Josh Weststudy co -author, professor of land sciences and environmental studies at the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences of USC Dornsife, in.
As it writes, throughout the Amazon rainforest, the extraction of gold is responsible for about 10% of deforestation – A percentage that is increasing significantly.
The amount of land in the Amazon used to extract gold has doubled since 2018, following a strong increase in the price of precious metal.
The impact on the landscape is devastating, with ground temperatures reaching 60 degrees Celsius. The natural regeneration of the earth is almost impossible. Only the areas near water sources.
Effect of “water cannons”
In the new study, the researchers sought to find out why the trees on land that were explored to extract gold.
This Minas Gerais practice uses a dredger that requires large volumes of water to aspire sediments and sand from the beds of rivers and streams in search of gold particles. THE Effect of “water cannons” – as researchers describe – is surface soil washing, rich in clay and nutrients.
The landscape becomes dry lakes, some as large as soccer fields, surrounded by sand mountains up to 7 meters high.
The team found that the Minas Gerais waste acts as a sieveallowing water to infiltrate much faster than in the soils of the primary forest (almost 15 meters a day, compared to only 0.074 meters a day in the forest).
“This leaves the soil with less moisture and more heat, exacerbated by the lack of shadow due to deforestation, making it impossible to fix new roots. replanted trees simply die“, Explained to Live Science, the leader of the investigation, Abra Atwoodfrom the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
Destroyed area 10x the size of Portugal
The team found that, between 1980 and 2017, the small scale mining destroyed more than 950 km square of tropical forest in this territory.
This is equivalent to a Area more than ten times the size of Portugal.
To make the situation worse, the, endangering biodiversity and indigenous territories.
“The current landscape in the areas of suction mining where we worked offers very little in terms of ecosystem services beyond gold extraction. Habitat loss will also have a deep impact on biodiversity In the long run, ”said Atwood.
“There is only one Amazonian tropical rainforest. It is a living system unlike anything on Earth. If we lose it, we lose something irreplaceable,” warned Josh West.
