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I am studying reforestation strategies and how practical they would be for use in the Amazon. As the preservation plan of Mission 2006 continues to unfold, these strategies may play a critical role in the maintenance of the Amazon Basin. However, I will stress now that as far as I'm concerned, based on the indications I have received from my research, reforestation will only ever be practical in the Amazon as a secondary addition to a larger plan. If we try to adopt reforestation as a plan in and of itself for protecting the Amazon Basin, we will end up putting so much duct tape over the patches that by the time we stand back and look at the rainforest, there will be nothing of substance left....
The problem with deforestation is that the soil in the Amazon is already greatly lacking in nutrients and nutrient exchange capability. While I have not studied all of the major nutrients that are lacking within the soil, it seems there are a number of options for freeing up nitrogen to the reforestation effort within the soil. Most options revolve around nitrogen-fixing bacteria, found especially on a number of legumous plants. These bacteria transform diatomic nitrogen into other forms of nitrogen that can be more easily absorbed (nitrates?). One of the other members of my group has been studying a fungus, mycorrhizae, that dissolve other nutrients, such as phosphorous, calcium and magnesium into a medium that the plants can more easily absorb. Considering that “in low fertility soils, nutrient cycling is an important basis for sustainability,” these micro-organisms may be critical to any reforestation efforts. The nutrient layer of the soil in the Amazon is also very thin, so the maintenance of the structural integrity of the soil is difficult. Deforestation destroys the root structure of the trees, exposing the soil to surface erosion. Once this process has begun, it is especially difficult to reverse because any new plants will have to deal with a diminished soil layer (most of the terrain below the nutrient soil layer is clay or sand). It is suggested that grasses (page 10) may be effective at building soil stability, but in the Amazon they would still suffer from a lack of a protective canopy. It would appear that we would have to implement an accelerated secession (biome develop and maturation) of the reforested land to bring it up to the point where it could protect itself. The problem, however is that the forest that we chop down in a number of hours, days, or years, took centuries for nature to create. By the time we have succeeded in any reforestation efforts, the rest of the rainforest may be gone. As far as actual strategies go, their seem to be two (or three) common ways to reforest an area: natural regeneration or artificial regeneration. Natural regeneration is the cheaper of the two efforts, but gives the environmental engineers less control over what and how much vegetation develops where. (Nevertheless, it is how things were done in the Amazon for thousands of years.) Artificial regeneration is usually undertaken in one of two ways. The first method is direct seeding, where the seeds are actually implanted in specific areas of the ground. Obviously this gives the engineers a large amount of control to say how the environment should develop, but wild life and natural factors will inevitably interfere. The other major artificial reforestation method is planting. This involves raising the trees to saplings before going out into the field and directly planting them into the ground. Aside form the trauma of transplantation and the inaccessibility of much of the Amazon, this plan requires a LOT of planning ahead and a large amount of human resources and funds. Both of the artificial methods cost substantially more than natural regeneration. Site preparation strategies do not seem to be well adapted to the Amazon either. The two most common strategies are scarification, which involves dragging large chains behind a tractor to loosen topsoil and expose nutrients beneath, and burning, which involves clearing an area of vegetative debris and burning it to use as a nutrient-rich fertilizer for the soil. The problem with scarification is that there is not a lot of soil in the Amazon to begin with, so the chances are the process will just wipe the land clean of nutrients. Burning also has the potential to destroy the nutrients in the ground but because the Amazon relies so heavily on nutrient cycling, any success in this technique will be short-lived. Without plants to cycle the nutrients, or a canopy to protect them from the elements, the nutrients will just be washed away. Anyway, as you can see, reforestation of the Amazon would not be an easy task. At best, it could only be effectively used as a maintenance procedure in addition to a greater plan. I will need to do more research still to see whether I can find or develop any suitable reforestation technique for the Amazon. In particular, I will need to work with Flora to determine the affects of bringing foreign plant species into the Amazon. As well, I am going to need to get in contact with Alternative Development to discuss the feasibility of reforestation strategies and to see whether they have come up with anything new on their end. |
