Evaluating Species Diversity and Aboveground Biomass Carbon at Bindura Nickel Tailings Dumps Rehabilitated with Acacia saligna (Labill) Trees

Lawrence Mango¹

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.9 , Issue.2 , pp.1-7, Apr-2022

Online published on Apr 30, 2022

Copyright © Lawrence Mango . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Disposal of mine tailings on the ecosystem can cause alterations in plant productivity. A study was carried out to assess the effects of grass, herbaceous and woody diversity, and aboveground biomass C on nickel mine tailings dumps with 19, 22, 24 and 26-years old Acacia saligna trees at Trojan Nickel mine, Zimbabwe. The total counting method was used to determine the number of individual herbaceous and woody species. The Braun Blanquet abundance and cover scale was used for the diversity of grass species while the Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index (H’) was used to determine diversity of herbaceous and woody species among the mine tailings dumps. Aboveground biomass C data was estimated from allometry equations using tree height, diameter at breast height and wood density measurements. Analysis of variance was used to determine mean aboveground biomass C with difference in tree age. The aboveground biomass C including surface litter increased significantly (p<0.05) with the age of A. saligna trees on tailings’ dumps. The diversity of herbaceous, woody and grass species increased with the age of A. saligna trees. Herbaceous species diversity was highest (H’=2.21) in the tailings’ dump with 26-years old A. saligna trees while the tailings’ dump with 22-years old A. saligna trees recorded the least species diversity (H’=1.87). Re-vegetation of mine tailings should be considered in ecological restoration. However, aboveground biomass C content of different plant species thriving on mine tailings’ dumps has to be studied in order to determine the mine tailings’ dump ecosystem C stocks. The study also recommends an in-depth research on seasonal diversity of specific species on mine tailings’ dumps.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Aboveground biomass carbon, allometry equations, carbon sequestration, species diversity, wood density

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