Germinação e crescimento de Schinus terebinthifolia Raddi cultivada em resíduo de mineração de ferro

Abstract

Soil compaction is a well-known harmful process for germination and seedling growth and development. Nonetheless, studies about this process in different pollutants such as mining tailings have been neglected despite being essential for the revegetation of impacted areas. This work aimed to evaluate the effects of compaction of iron mining tailings on the germination, early growth, and photosynthesis of SchinusterebinthifoliaRaddi, which is a tolerant species with potential for use in revegetation systems. Experiments were implemented in a greenhouse where seeds of S. terebinthifolia were sown in iron mining tailings with four compaction treatments: 1) uncompacted dry tailing, 2) uncompacted moistened tailing, 3) compacted dry tailing, and 4) compacted moistened tailing. Penetration resistance, seed germination, germination speed index, seedling biometry, and photosynthesis were evaluated. Compacted moistened tailings showed the highest penetration resistance and the uncompacted dry tailings the lowest, other treatments showed intermediate means. The compacted moistened tailings produced the lowest germination rate and germination speed index and these parameters showed the highest means at uncompacted dry tailings with other treatments showing intermediate means. Compaction did not affect seedling biometric parameters with similar growth among all treatments. Schinusterebinthifolia seedlings showed improved growth parameters during the experimental period evidencing the potential of the species for reforestation systems in impacted areas by iron mining tailings.