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In order to integrate necessary interdisciplinary complexity, sustainability, defined targets and endpoints for reclamation progress, the objective of this research is to advance reclamation knowledge on (i) international scale and (ii) national scale, taking Nigeria as an example. On the international scale (i), a systematic reclamation threshold scale for assessing, evaluating, documenting, and monitoring reclamation progress was developed. The threshold stages begin from the initial state I0 down to degraded state D0 (depending on the type of mining). Reclamation starts with soil reconstruction R-2 up to revegetation R-1 (red zones) to reach minimum threshold R0 (amber zone). Beyond R0 are the green zones R1, R2, and R3 representing soil/abiotic condition, biological and improved threshold respectively. Adaptation of the threshold model to degraded ecosystems in national and international laws is recommended. On the national scale with Nigeria (ii), endowed with over 34 solid minerals and abundant crude oil, findings show that almost all mine sites are below the minimum threshold scale R0. The sites are adversely affected by Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM), whereby, contamination and soil lithology disturbances are the state-of-the-art discussions. However, bioremediation (phytoremediation) is the most feasible remediation technique. Therefore, for the crude oil contaminated sites, this study highlights typical cogitation for large in-situ implementation and potential species for remediation. For the mineral resources, gold mining was the typical example. As a practical approach, experimental areas on an abandoned mining site (Site 1), an active mining site (Site 2) and an undisturbed vegetation site (Control) in southwestern Nigeria were mapped out to represent its mining and farming activities. On the sites, (a) the impacts of the ASM activities on the floristic association were assessed. (b) the potential of 2D Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) was explored to characterize the horizontal and vertical landscape homogeneity of the mine sites, and lastly, (c) the study identified native high-accumulating plants growing on the sites that can be employed for phytoremediation. Thus, the results show that (a) the floristic association of the mine sites have been stressed and disturbed. (b) the resistivity structure of the sites shows that ASM has greatly impaired the lithological status of the sites. (c) out of the 9 considered species, Crinum jagus has the highest accumulation factor of 8.71, 37.47, 1.08 and 29.38 for Pb, Cd, Fe and Cu respectively. It is a recommendable novel plant in the tropics. However, future studies must verify its hyperaccumulator potentials, identify other high accumulating species and develop effective approaches and policies to curb ASM activities and enhance remediation in Nigeria.
An empirical and simulation-based assessment of tree growth in temperate alley-cropping systems
(2020)
The potential of biomass generated from dedicated energy crops, used in short-rotation coppices (SRC), progressively grows recognition as a flexible primary source for the generation of energy, heat, fuel, and bio-based materials and chemicals. The alley-cropping systems (ACSs), which can integrate tree strips managed as SRC into agriculturally managed fields, are often regarded as an adaptable multi-crop land-use strategy that can provide ecological and economic benefits. The research aim of the present dissertation has focused on investigating the prospective implications of different site-specific conditions and scenarios on tree growth in ACSs with SRC, thus incorporating several experimental and simulation-based studies. For this, the ability of a process-oriented, eco-physiological tree growth model was investigated in order to (i) impute missing empirical data, thus securing a reliable repository of tree growth characteristics, (ii) simulate the tree growth in terms of woody biomass production in strong relation to the interactions with adjacent crops and their respective resource capture, (iii) predict and evaluate the tree growth sensitivity to prospective climate changes, thus performing risk assessments for the near and distant future, and (iv) derive and assess the land equivalent ratio (LER) and gross energy yield for different climatic, soil, and management scenarios. The findings have corroborated the potential tree growth vulnerability to prospective climatic changes, particularly to changes in water availability, and have underlined the importance of coping management strategies in SRC for forthcoming risk assessments and adaptation scenarios. Both LER and gross energy yields had resulted in a convex curve where the maximum values were achieved when either the tree or crop component was dominant (>75% of the land area) and minimum when these components shared similar proportions of land area. Collectively, the implications of different site-specific conditions and scenarios on tree growth in ACSs with SRC have been investigated in order to improve the decision-making, optimization, and adaptation of such systems. Last but not least, this dissertation has emphasized the considerable potential of modelling approaches in ACSs, as they can impute missing data from scarce available data and simulate tree and crop yields for specific site-conditions in a non-intrusive, inexpensive, and prompt way while supporting early site-setup planning.
With regard to the depletion of global phosphorus reserves and with the aim of ensuring sustainable soil fertility on agricultural soils, a fundamental understanding of mechanisms of fixation and mobilization of inorganic phosphorus in soils is required. Amongst others, phosphorus availability is affected by ad- and desorption reactions on pedogenic Fe- and Al-hydroxide surfaces. The characterization of phosphate binding on those contrasting mineral surfaces can help to find solutions for enhancing the mobilization of fertilized but not available soil inorganic phosphate. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic experiments were carried out during phosphorus adsorption on crystalline gibbsite, poorly crystalline 2-line-ferrihydrite and amorphous Fe:Al-hydroxide mixtures. Desorption experiments with CaCl₂, CaSO₄, citric acid (C₆H₈O₇), and humic acid (C₉H₉NO₆) were conducted to determine the capacity of phosphate fixation and mobilization in short- and long-term. Additionally, phosphorus release from the Fe- and Ca-phosphates vivianite and hydroxyapatite were analyzed.
For gibbsite, the formation of AlHPO₄ and Al₂HPO₄ can be assumed, while for ferrihydrite, a FeHPO₄ or Fe₂PO₄ complex and the precipitation of FePO₄ with longer equilibration time were observed. Fe₂HPO₄ or a Fe₂PO₄ surface complex was deduced for amorphous Fe-hydroxides, an AlH₂PO₄ surface complex was identified for Al-hydroxides. The weakly associated amorphous FeO(OH) molecules enhance the precipitation of FePO₄. With high Al content, a weaker phosphate binding of both inner- and outer-sphere complexes and either no or minor quantities of precipitate were formed. Ferrihydrite showed a more rigid structure and a lower extent of precipitation compared to amorphous Fe-hydroxide. The cumulative phosphorus desorption followed the order CaCl₂ < CaSO₄ < humic acid < citric acid for crystalline and amorphous Fe- and Al-hydroxides as well for vivianite and hydroxyapatite. While inorganic anion exchange took part at easily available binding sites and fast exchangeable phosphorus, organic acids additionally affect the more heavily available binding sites and slow exchangeable phosphorus. For humic acid, the accumulation of metal-organic complexes in the desorption solution was suggested, whereas for citric acid the dissolution of the minerals was maintained. The cumulative release rates of the Flow-Through-Reactor setup were higher compared to batch due to a short residence time and a continuous concentration gradient. This could lead either to an over- or underestimation of the available phosphorus pools and influenced the comparability of both methods.