Extraction and mining activities cause long-term impacts on local ecosystems, inevitably affecting biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Scientific research is helping to raise the awareness of mining companies toward the environmental issues created by their activities and promoting a change in paradigm toward the searching for concrete solutions counteracting and reversing the effects of resources exploitation by means of ecological restoration. The AMER S.R.L. company, in collaboration with the University of Salerno, offers a virtuous example of monitoring, management and ecological restoration of a dismissed limestone quarry in Southern Italy. Its program, leveraging on a circular economy perspective, uses various organic and inorganic recovered materials for the infill and restoration of the quarry, with the aim to promote the revegetation of the area by indigenous plant communities. In this context, the present research aims at monitoring the evolution of the system in order to develop adaptive and effective strategies for its ecological restoration. The results of the initial characterisation of the area show a landscape characterized by a highly heterogenous mosaic of habitats, mainly consisting of four plant physiognomies (mixed woodland, shrubland dominated by deciduous species, garrigue, dry grassland) insisting on a calcite bedrock. The infill material, characterized by 8,87±0,72% organic matter and an alkaline pH (9,09±0,10), promoted the initial colonization by synanthropic and tolerant species mainly belonging to Chenopodiaceae, Graminaceae, Solanaceae and Caryophyllaceae. Interestingly, several species were found to be highly colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizas belonging to the Glomus genus, which would likely support the further revegetation of the area. In this context, germination tests are underway in order to select species able to colonize the novel substrate and accelerate system recovery, which will be investigated in situ in terms of seasonal dynamics of vegetation and edaphic structural and functional biodiversity, as well as of soil chemical and physical characteristics. The continuous monitoring will provide the needed information to ensure the adaptability of the restoration intervention to the evolving system, which will represent a benchmark for the development of sustainable strategies tackling the recovery of dismissed quarries.
Recovering biodiversity and ecosystem functions in a dismissed quarry: a virtuous case study in Southern Italy
Napoletano M.;Bellino A.;Baldantoni D.
2024-01-01
Abstract
Extraction and mining activities cause long-term impacts on local ecosystems, inevitably affecting biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Scientific research is helping to raise the awareness of mining companies toward the environmental issues created by their activities and promoting a change in paradigm toward the searching for concrete solutions counteracting and reversing the effects of resources exploitation by means of ecological restoration. The AMER S.R.L. company, in collaboration with the University of Salerno, offers a virtuous example of monitoring, management and ecological restoration of a dismissed limestone quarry in Southern Italy. Its program, leveraging on a circular economy perspective, uses various organic and inorganic recovered materials for the infill and restoration of the quarry, with the aim to promote the revegetation of the area by indigenous plant communities. In this context, the present research aims at monitoring the evolution of the system in order to develop adaptive and effective strategies for its ecological restoration. The results of the initial characterisation of the area show a landscape characterized by a highly heterogenous mosaic of habitats, mainly consisting of four plant physiognomies (mixed woodland, shrubland dominated by deciduous species, garrigue, dry grassland) insisting on a calcite bedrock. The infill material, characterized by 8,87±0,72% organic matter and an alkaline pH (9,09±0,10), promoted the initial colonization by synanthropic and tolerant species mainly belonging to Chenopodiaceae, Graminaceae, Solanaceae and Caryophyllaceae. Interestingly, several species were found to be highly colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizas belonging to the Glomus genus, which would likely support the further revegetation of the area. In this context, germination tests are underway in order to select species able to colonize the novel substrate and accelerate system recovery, which will be investigated in situ in terms of seasonal dynamics of vegetation and edaphic structural and functional biodiversity, as well as of soil chemical and physical characteristics. The continuous monitoring will provide the needed information to ensure the adaptability of the restoration intervention to the evolving system, which will represent a benchmark for the development of sustainable strategies tackling the recovery of dismissed quarries.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
