5 ms·

The original paper is here: https://sci-hub.cc/10.1111/rec.12565 https://sci-hub.cc/10.1111/rec.12565 The original site was heavily degraded and was host to mo

The original paper is here: https://sci-hub.cc/10.1111/rec.12565 https://sci-hub.cc/10.1111/rec.12565 The original site was heavily degraded and was host to mostly a single species of invasive grass, introduced by ranchers for pasture. This invasive grass presumably was preventing native shrubs and other woody plants from re-establishing. The fruit company was permitted to dump 1000 truckloads of orange peels over 3 hectares (30,000 square meters) in exchange for donating 1,600 hectares of primary forest. What's interesting is that the authors hypothesize that the acidity of the orange peels actually altered the soil pH enough to kill off all of the invasive grasses and allowed the native plants to reestablish themselves. Unfortunately the authors don't test this hypothesis directly, and the intertwined effects of {acidity, asphyxiation of invasive grasses by several tons of material, massive additional organic nutrient input} can't be teased out due to the experimental design. Though with effects like this, I'm sure restoration ecologists would be happy to receive 1600 Ha of old-growth forest in exchange for dumping rights on 3 Ha of disturbed pasture land, even if they don't know the exact mechanism.

umanwizard 9y ago
I must be missing something -- how is dumping rights on 3 hectares of some land worth 1600 hectares of other land? How could this possibly be a better deal for them than clearing 3 hectares of their land, dumping whatever they wanted to there, and selling the other 1597?
- jonchang 9y ago
  The company was going to build a multimillion dollar plant (1997 dollars) to process the waste. Instead they just gave away a bunch of land they weren't going to develop anyway. Also just because you own some land doesn't mean it's legal to do whatever you want with it, especially industrial uses like dumping waste. Costa Rica is probably one of the better countries in terms of protecting its natural resources (compared to say, recent events in Brazil) so it's unlikely that they could have just ignored laws. I would encourage you to read the original paper, and in general always go for original sources; they are surprisingly readable if you know what you can skip and what you have to look up.
- wutbrodo 9y ago
  Is it possible that they'd be otherwise restricted from dumping, even on land that they own? EDIT: the paper says: "D.H.J. offered a different plan for the orange waste: biodegrade it on recently incorporated degraded pastureland within ACG. In return for this agricultural waste management, Del Oro could donate its forested land at the margins of ACG that it had no intention of cultivating, and eventually provide cash payments." But I guess that doesn't really answer the question, hmm
kevmo 9y ago
Another possibility is that the soil was so degraded that only crummy grass could grow there. Perhaps the larger native plants, which are more complex organisms, need nutrients in greater quantities than the grass. So it's less about beating back the invasive grass and more about establishing necessary conditions for native growth. These more complex organisms then create shade canopy that other native species can thrive in (and which is bad for grass). This is an extrapolation of my my experiences with composting. A greater number of plants can grow in rich soil, period.
- jonchang 9y ago
  Yes, this is what I was referring to when I mentioned "massive additional organic nutrient input". Unfortunately the authors experiment design isn't sufficient to show that this is the case since again there are other factors at play. But it's certainly a possibility.
  - kevmo 9y ago
    Indeed. The soil pH, while important in and of itself, seems like a bit of a red herring (or maybe a secondary story) when evaluating the macro-changes.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
  Pioneer species are hardy species which are the first to colonize previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems, beginning a chain of ecological succession that ultimately leads to a more biodiverse steady-state ecosystem.[1] Some lichens grow on rocks without soil, so may be among the first of life forms, and break down the rock into soil for other plants.[2] Since some uncolonized land may have thin, poor quality soils with few nutrients, pioneer species are often hardy plants with adaptations such as long roots, root nodes containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and leaves that employ transpiration.[1] Adding compost speeds the process along by adding nutrients and inoculating the soil with insects, bacteria, and fungi. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_species
ChuckMcM 9y ago
Thank you for the link to the paper, a much better source. I was hoping to find an article by Sunkist on how they were helping to restore damaged prarie or something with their waste rinds and pulp but alas their web site is silent on that topic as far as I can find.
hinkley 9y ago
They effectively sheet mulched the area, which is an established practice.

umanwizard 9y ago

I must be missing something -- how is dumping rights on 3 hectares of some land worth 1600 hectares of other land? How could this possibly be a better deal for them than clearing 3 hectares of their land, dumping whatever they wanted to there, and selling the other 1597?

jonchang 9y ago
The company was going to build a multimillion dollar plant (1997 dollars) to process the waste. Instead they just gave away a bunch of land they weren't going to develop anyway. Also just because you own some land doesn't mean it's legal to do whatever you want with it, especially industrial uses like dumping waste. Costa Rica is probably one of the better countries in terms of protecting its natural resources (compared to say, recent events in Brazil) so it's unlikely that they could have just ignored laws. I would encourage you to read the original paper, and in general always go for original sources; they are surprisingly readable if you know what you can skip and what you have to look up.
wutbrodo 9y ago
Is it possible that they'd be otherwise restricted from dumping, even on land that they own? EDIT: the paper says: "D.H.J. offered a different plan for the orange waste: biodegrade it on recently incorporated degraded pastureland within ACG. In return for this agricultural waste management, Del Oro could donate its forested land at the margins of ACG that it had no intention of cultivating, and eventually provide cash payments." But I guess that doesn't really answer the question, hmm

kevmo 9y ago

Another possibility is that the soil was so degraded that only crummy grass could grow there. Perhaps the larger native plants, which are more complex organisms, need nutrients in greater quantities than the grass. So it's less about beating back the invasive grass and more about establishing necessary conditions for native growth. These more complex organisms then create shade canopy that other native species can thrive in (and which is bad for grass). This is an extrapolation of my my experiences with composting. A greater number of plants can grow in rich soil, period.

jonchang 9y ago
Yes, this is what I was referring to when I mentioned "massive additional organic nutrient input". Unfortunately the authors experiment design isn't sufficient to show that this is the case since again there are other factors at play. But it's certainly a possibility.
- kevmo 9y ago
  Indeed. The soil pH, while important in and of itself, seems like a bit of a red herring (or maybe a secondary story) when evaluating the macro-changes.
TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
Pioneer species are hardy species which are the first to colonize previously disrupted or damaged ecosystems, beginning a chain of ecological succession that ultimately leads to a more biodiverse steady-state ecosystem.[1] Some lichens grow on rocks without soil, so may be among the first of life forms, and break down the rock into soil for other plants.[2] Since some uncolonized land may have thin, poor quality soils with few nutrients, pioneer species are often hardy plants with adaptations such as long roots, root nodes containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and leaves that employ transpiration.[1] Adding compost speeds the process along by adding nutrients and inoculating the soil with insects, bacteria, and fungi. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_species https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_species

ChuckMcM 9y ago

Thank you for the link to the paper, a much better source. I was hoping to find an article by Sunkist on how they were helping to restore damaged prarie or something with their waste rinds and pulp but alas their web site is silent on that topic as far as I can find.

hinkley 9y ago

They effectively sheet mulched the area, which is an established practice.