Positive Effect of Ecological Restoration with Fabaceous Species on Microbial Activities of Former Guyanese Mining Sites

Abstract

Understanding ecological trajectories after mine site rehabilitation is essential to develop relevant protocols adapted for gold mining sites. This study describes the influence of a range of mine site rehabilitation and revegetation protocols on soil physicochemical parameters and microbial activities related to carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. We sampled soil from six rehabilitated mining sites in French Guiana with different plant cover (herbaceous, Cyperaceous, monoculture of Clitoria racemosa and Acacia mangium and association of C. racemosa and A. mangium). We measured the mineralization potential of organic matter by estimating the mineralization of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus and the microbial catabolic diversity balance. The results showed an improvement in the quality of organic matter on revegetated sites with tree cover. On restored sites with fabaceous species, the microbial biomass is three times higher than non-restored sites, improving the rates of organic matter mineralization and restoring the catabolic diversity to the level of natural Guyanese soils. These results confirm that the establishment of fabaceous species under controlled conditions significantly improves the restoration of microbial communities in mining soils.