Amazon Rainforest Is Dying From Rising Mercury Levels In Soil Due To Excess Mining

We already know the kind of damage deforestation and mining can have on the environment, the habitat and the lives of animals at that location.?

However, now researchers have discovered that the intensity of the damage stretches so far, that it even impacts the nature’s healing process, threatening the "lungs of our planet" the great Amazon rainforest no less.

Reuters

This is according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Leeds. They’ve discovered that gold mining in the Amazon has sucked out nutrients from the soil, while also severely polluting the areas surrounding it with mercury.?

This has eventually impacted the forest recovery rates -- lowest ever recorded in a rainforest terrain with some patches of land damaged beyond repair, where trees just couldn’t grow, even after four years of shutting down of the mines.

Amazon rainforest is under threat

For the study, the team observed the area of Guiana Shield and it includes places like Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Venezuela as well as some parts of Columbia and Brazil. This is also the place where 90 percent of the deforestation of the Amazon has taken place.

Reuters

Research has shown that deforestation caused due to mining in the Guiana Shield has resulted in the loss of over two million tons of carbon stored in trees each year.?

Moreover, when looking at the ground samples they found mercury concentration 250 times higher than normal levels, with lower amounts of nitrogen. In case you didn’t know, nitrogen is one of the crucial nutrients that helps a plant grow and thrive.?

Michelle Kalamandeen from the University of Leeds said in a statement, “Not only does this have serious consequences for our battle against global warming by limiting Amazonian forests’ ability to capture and store carbon, but there is also a larger implication of contaminating food sources especially for indigenous and local communities who rely on rivers.”

Reuters

She added, “This study shows that tropical forests are strongly impacted by mining activities, and have very little capacity to re-establish themselves following mining.”