FAST RECOVERY OF TROPICAL FOREST SOIL PROPERTIES FOLLOWING BAUXITE MIMING

A current trend is the ecological recovery of degraded areas in an ecosystemic way. In this sense, the use of surface soil and other complementary techniques in mining areas, still incipient, plays an important role in soil recovery. Our objective was to contextualize the soil improvement, in forests undergoing environmental recuperation submitted to mining, located in the Atlantic Forest, southwest of Brazil. In 6 areas under forest restoration process, 6 native forests and 6 newly mined soil samples were collected up to 40 cm depth. The key indicators were: pH, organic matter (OM), P, Al, cation exchange capacity (CEC), the texture, soil density, macroporosity, microbial structure and diversity and basal respiration rate. Respiration rate of the restoration is similar to that of the native and much larger than that of mining. The forest restoration was efficient in triggering a process of soil recovery, resulting in the reestablishment, in a few years, of physical, chemical, and microbiological characteristics already very similar to those of the reference ecosystem.