En este trabajo es estudiado el efecto de dos densidades de siembra de la palmera aguaje (Mauritia flexuosa L.f.) sobre su crecimiento en altura; cuantificamos la proporción de plantas según sexo y ...determinamos los requerimientos ecológicos de iluminación y forma de copa del aguaje. El estudio se desarrolló en dos subparcelas con diferente densidad de siembra que fueron monitoreadas por 6 años después de 6 años de haber sido plantadas. Los resultados muestran que los individuos presentan mayor altura promedio y por lo tanto mayor crecimiento a mayor densidad de siembra. Es así que a los 12 años de establecidas las plantaciones, los individuos tuvieron en promedio 15.28 m y 13.1 m de altura a densidades de siembra mayores y menores, respectivamente. La proporción de palmeras fértiles se fue incrementando con el tiempo, siendo por lo general mayor a bajas densidades e incrementando en el tiempo la presencia de plantas femeninas. Existe una marcada competencia entre las copas de las palmeras por requerimientos de luz en las categorías buena y aceptable, por lo que se recomienda continuar con la evaluación y analizar el comportamiento futuro de las palmeras.
The carbon (C) dynamics of tropical peatlands can be of global importance, because, particularly in Southeast Asia, they are the source of considerable amounts of C released to the atmosphere as a ...result of land‐use change and fire. In contrast, the existence of tropical peatlands in Amazonia has been documented only recently. According to a recent study, the 120 000 km2 subsiding Pastaza‐Marañón foreland basin in Peruvian Amazonia harbours previously unstudied and up to 7.5 m thick peat deposits. We studied the role of these peat deposits as a C reserve and sink by measuring peat depth, radiocarbon age and peat and C accumulation rates at 5–13 sites. The basal ages varied from 1975 to 8870 cal yr bp, peat accumulation rates from 0.46 to 9.31 mm yr−1 and C accumulation rates from 28 to 108 g m−2 yr−1. The total peatland area and current peat C stock within the area of two studied satellite images were 21 929 km2 and 3.116 Gt (with a range of 0.837–9.461 Gt). The C stock is 32% (with a range of 8.7–98%) of the best estimate of the South American tropical peatland C stock and 3.5% (with a range of 0.9–10.7%) of the best estimate of the global tropical peatland C stock. The whole Pastaza‐Marañón basin probably supports about twice this peatland area and peat C stock. In addition to their contemporary geographical extent, these peatlands probably also have a large historical (vertical) extension because of their location in a foreland basin characterized by extensive river sedimentation, peat burial and subsidence for most of the Quaternary period. Burial of peat layers in deposits of up to 1 km thick Quaternary river sediments removes C from the short‐term C cycle between the biosphere and atmosphere, generating a long‐term C sink.
Gold mining is the largest source of mercury (Hg) pollution worldwide. The discharge of mercury in the environment bears direct human health risks and is likely to increase cascading effects ...throughout local food chains. In the Peruvian Amazon the mining process consists of slashing and burning trees, followed by extraction of gold-bearing sediment, amalgamation with Hg and gold recovery, leading each year to the degradation of 6,000-10,000 ha and the release of 180 metric tons of Hg per year to the enviroment. The purpose of this study was to determine soil Hg levels in soils of abandoned alluvial gold mine spoils and undisturbed forest in the Madre de Dios region, the epicenter of alluvial gold mining in Peru. We selected gold mine spoils of the two most important technologies locally applied for gold extraction, i.e., Minimally Mechanized Mining (MMM) and Highly Mechanized Mining (HMM), in the native communities of Laberinto and Kotzimba, respectively. We collected 127 and 35 soil samples (0-20cm depth) from potentially contaminated sites and undisturbed forest, respectively. Physicochemical analysis and determination of Hg levels were determined for all soil samples. None of the samples had Hg concentrations above Peruvian, Canadian and British Environmental Quality Standards for Agricultural Soil (6.6mg/kg). Hg levels in MMM and HMM were not significantly different between the two areas. The main variables explaining variation of soil Hg concentrations were the vegetation cover, soil organic matter, soil pH and clay particle content, which explained up to 80% of data set variation. Surprisingly, highest Hg concentrations were found in untouched old-growth forest bordering the mine spoils, but there was also a trend of increasing Hg concentrations with the regenerating vegetation. Our findings suggest that Hg concentrations in old mine spoils are low and shouldn’t stand in the way of efforts to restore soil conditions and develop sustainable land uses. However, it is urgent to end the use of Hg in mining operation to decrease human and environmental risks.
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•Hg levels in gold mine spoil soils were below upper limits environmental quality standards.•Vegetation, soil organic matter and pH explain Hg variation in soils.•Uncovered mine spoils with leaching processes disperse Hg in the environment.•Recolonization with vegetation increases soil organic matter, decreases pH, thus enhancing Hg in soils.
Indonesia and Peru harbor some of the largest lowland tropical peatland areas. Indonesian peatlands are subject to much greater anthropogenic activity than Peru’s, including drainage, logging, ...agricultural conversion, and burning, resulting in high greenhouse gas and particulate emissions. To derive insights from the Indonesian experience, we explored patterns of impact in the two countries, and compared their predisposing factors. Impacts differ greatly among Indonesian regions and the Peruvian Amazon in the following order: Sumatra > Kalimantan > Papua > Peru. All impacts, except fire, are positively related to population density. Factors enhancing Indonesian peatlands’ susceptibility to disturbance include peat doming that facilitates drainage, coastal location, high local population, road access, government policies permitting peatland use, lack of enforcement of protections, and dry seasons that favor extensive burning. The main factors that could reduce peatland degradation in Peru compared with Indonesia are geographic isolation from coastal population centers, more compact peatland geomorphology, lower population and road density, more peatlands in protected areas, different land tenure policies, and different climatic drivers of fire; whereas factors that could enhance peatland degradation include oil and gas development, road expansion in peatland areas, and an absence of government policies explicitly protecting peatlands. We conclude that current peatland integrity in Peru arises from a confluence of factors that has slowed development, with no absolute barriers protecting Peruvian peatlands from a similar fate to Indonesia’s. If the goal is to maintain the integrity of Peruvian peatlands, government policies recognizing unique peatland functions and sensitivities will be necessary.
El objetivo fue determinar las propiedades físicas y mecánicas de Guadua lynnclarkiae, Guadua weberbaueri y Guadua superba. De cada especie fueron colectados tres culmos, posteriormente fueron ...seccionados en tres niveles: cepa (C), basa (B) y sobrebasa (SB). El experimento fue conducido en diseño de completamente al azar (DCA) en esquema factorial (3E x 3N), siendo el factor E: especies de bambú con tres niveles: a) Guadua lynnclarkiae, b) Guadua weberbaueri y c) Guadua superba; y el factor N: nivel de culmo con tres secciones a) cepa, b) basa y c) sobrebasa, todos distribuidos en tres repeticiones y 4 probetas para las propiedades físicas. Para las propiedades mecánicas fue utilizado el mismo diseño experimental y número de repeticiones, no obstante, fueron utilizados 5 probetas por parcela experimental. Así, la mayor contracción de la pared de culmo fue de 23,0% en Guadua lynnclarkiae en el nivel basa. La densidad básica en las tres especies fue de 0,71 g cm-3. En flexión, el mayor módulo de ruptura fue registrado en Guadua superba en cepa, basa y sobrebasa con 55,15; 84,49 y 73,97 MPa, respectivamente. En compresión paralela el MoE y MoR fue de 11454.35 MPa y 39,50 MPa en las tres especies y niveles. Por ello, Guadua lynnclarkiae y Guadua weberbaueri poseen propiedades físicas y mecánicas adecuadas para diferentes usos incluyendo la construcción civil. No obstante, en Guadua superba se recomienda realizar estudios posteriores de rigidez y resistencia para su uso en la construcción de viviendas en zonas rurales y urbanas.
Few studies describe the factors that influence the natural regeneration in abandoned gold mining areas in the Amazon. Here we focus on the influence of the distance to the forest edge and ...abandonment time in a spontaneous succession of degraded areas by gold mining in the southeastern Peruvian Amazon. We assessed woody species composition (DBH ≥ 1 cm) and forest stand structure across a chronosequence (2–23 years). A total of 79 species belonging to 30 families were identified. The natural regeneration was dominated by Fabaceae, Malvaceae, and Urticaceae. Together, they represented 60% of the importance index. Cecropia membranacea and Ochroma pyramidale were the dominant pioneer species at the initial successional stage. The basal area and species diversity were directly related to time after abandonment and inversely related to the distance to forest edges. The distance-based redundancy analysis showed that more of the variation in species composition was explained by distance to the forest edge than the abandonment time. Our study revealed that regeneration was relatively slow and provided evidence that the distance to the forest edge is important for natural regeneration in areas degraded by gold mining.
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) in the Amazon has degraded tropical forests and escalated mercury (Hg) pollution, affecting biodiversity, ecological processes and rural livelihoods. In ...the Peruvian Amazon, ASGM annually releases some 181 tons of Hg into the environment. Despite some recent advances in understanding the spatial distribution of Hg within gold mine spoils and the surrounding landscape, temporal dynamics in Hg movement are not well understood. We aimed to reveal spatio-temporal trends of soil Hg in areas degraded by ASGM.,. We analyzed soil and sediment samples during the dry and rainy seasons across 14 ha of potentially contaminated sites and natural forests, in the vicinities of the Native community of San Jacinto in Madre de Dios, Peru. Soil Hg levels of areas impacted by ASGM (0.02 ± 0.02 mg kg−1) were generally below soil environmental quality standards (6.60 mg kg−1). However, they showed high variability, mainly explained by the type of natural cover vegetation, soil organic matter (SOM), clay and sand particles. Temporal trends in Hg levels in soils between seasons differed between landscape units distinguished in the mine spoils. During the rainy season, Hg levels decreased up to 45.5% in uncovered soils, while in artificial pond sediments Hg increased by up to 961%. During the dry season, uncovered degraded soils were more prone to lose Hg than sites covered by vegetation, mainly due to higher soil temperatures and concomitantly increasing volatilization. Soils from natural forests and degraded soil covered by regenerating vegetation showed a high capacity to retain Hg mainly due to the higher plant biomass, higher SOM, and increasing concentrations of clay particles. Disturbingly, our findings suggest high Hg mobility from gold mine spoil to close by sedimentary materials, mainly in artificial ponds through alluvial deposition and pluvial lixiviation. Thus, further research is needed on monitoring, and remediation of sediments in artificial to design sustainable land use strategies.
•During the rainy season, mercury moves from degraded soils to nearby sediments.•Cation exchange capacity, soil organic matter, and vegetation affect soil-degraded mercury.•Prioritize sediment monitoring and rehabilitation downstream of ASGM.
There is a high international demand for timber from the genus
Dipteryx
, or “shihuahuaco” as it is known in Peru. Developing tools that allow the identification and discrimination of
Dipteryx
...species is therefore important for supporting management of natural populations and to underpin legal trade of its timber. The objective of this study was the molecular characterization of
Dipteryx
species in the Peruvian Amazonia. Two plastid regions (cpDNA:
trnH–psbA
and
mat
K) were sequenced and 11 microsatellite markers (nDNA) were genotyped for 32 individuals identified as
Dipteryx charapilla
,
D. micrantha
morphotype 1 and
D. micrantha
morphotype 2. Using the concatenated sequences of the plastid genes, we identified ten haplotypes that were not shared between the species or between the
D. micrantha
morphotypes. Haplotypic diversity was greater in
D. micrantha
morphotype 2 and
D. charapilla
than in
D. micrantha
morphotype 1, which presented only one haplotype with a wide distribution in Peru. The microsatellites allowed the discrimination of the same three clades and identified diagnostic alleles for each clade. These results allowed us to demonstrate that the two morphotypes of
D. micrantha
are different at both the plastid and nuclear markers, which supports the existence of three genetically distinct species in Peru. This study provides information for the genetic discrimination of
Dipteryx
species and emphasises the importance of conserving the genetic variability of this genus in the Peruvian Amazonia.
The research summarized and validated the individual selection of camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia (Kunth) McVaugh) plants. 43 progenies, previously selected in genetic tests and fields of producers of ...flood areas, were evaluated. Each progeny was installed in a row of 10 half-sister plants, with a space of 3x2 m. Using the SELEGEN (Reml / Blup) Model 63 program, four crops were analyzed, and individuals were selected for each of the 16 descriptors evaluated. For fruit yield, the Tipishca-Río Tigre population stood out, occupying 5 of the first 10 places. The individuals TT0725-4 (Tigre-Tipishca) turned out to be a natural recombinant for fruit yield / weight. And individual 64-8 turned out to be triple recombinant (yield / fruit weight / ascorbic acid). The descriptors with the highest genetic control with r ≥ 0.30 were: average fruit weight, brix degrees, plant height, number of basal branches and petiole length. The criteria of similarity of the morphological markers with the fruit yield are proposed as predictive indexes of productivity. The plant height at two years of age was the most important.
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