Sustainability for the phytomanagement of mining polluted soil: an ecophysiological and microbiological approach (CGL2017-82264-R)

Project
National
Funding

Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad: 96.800 €

Duration

From January 1st, 2018 to December 31st, 2021

Project Manager
Dr. Héctor Miguel Conesa Alcaraz
Staff
Dr. María Nazaret González Alcaraz
Dr. Francisco José Jiménez Cárceles
Dr. Yolanda Risueño García
Partnership Entities

Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena

University of Aveiro

BIOCYMA, S.L.

General Objectives

The main goal is to evaluate the effects of the addition of organic amendments (combination compost/biochar) and/or of plant growth on the improvement of edaphic parameters for the phytomanagement of mine tailings in semiarid areas. The enhancement of soil functionality will be assessed attending to microbiological, physical, chemical and physico-chemical aspects, including the structure of microbial populations and the ecophysiology of pioneer plant species.

Summary

The proposal includes field and experimental phases. The latter will be performed in mesocosms. The field part has as a main goal to evaluate the influence of edpahic gradients in the structure of the microbial populations in semiarid mine tailings. In addition, the effects of seasonal dynamics on ecology/ecophysiology of selected endemic plant species will be performed. The experimental phase will be carried out using mesocosms in a greehouse and has the goal of evaluating the effects of organic amendments (combination compost/biochar) on the structure of microbial populations and determining their sustainability and capacity to "travel" from "amended dependent systems" to self sustaining systems conditioned by plant litter.

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Project Results

PAPERS

Risueño, Y., Petri, C., Conesa, H.M. 2021. A critical assessment on the short-term response of microbial relative composition in a mine tailings soil amended with biochar and manure compost. Journal of Hazardous Materials. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126080. 

Risueño, Y., Petri, C., Conesa, HM. 2020. The importance of edaphic niches functionality for the sustainability of
phytomanagement in semiarid mining impacted ecosystems. Journal of Environmental Management 266, 110613.

Risueño, Y., Petri, C., Conesa, HM. 2020. Edaphic factors determining the colonization of semiarid mine tailings by a ruderal shrub and two tree plant species: Implications for phytomanagement. Chemosphere 259: 127425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127425.