| 1. |
- María Agudelo-Echavarría, Diana, et al.
(författare)
-
Historical reconstruction of Small-scale gold mining activities in tropical wetland sediments in Bajo Cauca-Antioquia, Colombia
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Chemosphere. - : Elsevier. - 0045-6535 .- 1879-1298. ; 254
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global mining activities in Latin America have increased exponentially over the last decade. The present study aims to assess the historical impact of Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining activities (ASGM) in the Department of Antioquia, Colombia, a region characterized by increased mining development over the past century. Historical trends of heavy metals (i.e., Ag, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were reconstructed for the past century in a tropical wetland near the mining district. Results indicate that local mining operations did not have a significant influence in the area until the mid-20th century when metal concentrations began to increase and exceeded background values. The significant increase in both sediment accumulation rates and total organic carbon (TOC) content during the 1920s reflects the deforestation of the area due to the diversification of the economy (e.g. coffee cultivation, mining or animal husbandry). Both concentrations and accumulation rates of metals increased exponentially after the 1980s as a consequence of the reactivation of alluvial gold exploitation, reaching values that exceeded up to 2-5 times the background levels. The historical metal trends in sediments from Las Palmas wetland reflected the historical socio-economic development in Antioquia and can be used as a good proxy for evaluating anthropogenic impacts in this region.
|
|
| 2. |
- Olid, Carolina, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
-
Decade of experimental permafrost thaw reduces turnover of young carbon and increases losses of old carbon, without affecting the net carbon balance
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 26:10, s. 5886-5898
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Thicker snowpacks and their insulation effects cause winter-warming and invoke thaw of permafrost ecosystems. Temperature-dependent decomposition of previously frozen carbon (C) is currently considered one of the strongest feedbacks between the Arctic and the climate system, but the direction and magnitude of the net C balance remains uncertain. This is because winter effects are rarely integrated with C fluxes during the snow-free season and because predicting the net C balance from both surface processes and thawing deep layers remains challenging. In this study, we quantified changes in the long-term net C balance (net ecosystem production) in a subarctic peat plateau subjected to 10 years of experimental winter-warming. By combining(210)Pb and(14)Cdating of peat cores with peat growth models, we investigated thawing effects on year-round primary production and C losses through respiration and leaching from both shallow and deep peat layers. Winter-warming and permafrost thaw had no effect on the net C balance, but strongly affected gross C fluxes. Carbon losses through decomposition from the upper peat were reduced as thawing of permafrost induced surface subsidence and subsequent waterlogging. However, primary production was also reduced likely due to a strong decline in bryophytes cover while losses from the old C pool almost tripled, caused by the deepened active layer. Our findings highlight the need to estimate long-term responses of whole-year production and decomposition processes to thawing, both in shallow and deep soil layers, as they may contrast and lead to unexpected net effects on permafrost C storage.
|
|
