Tropical deforestation is mainly driven by agricultural expansion, land grabbing, illegal logging, urbanization, cattle ranching as well as mining. However, extraction of minerals and its impacts in high biodiversity regions are still poorly known, particularly in Colombia, a tropical megadiverse hotspot. Here, using high-resolution datasets of forest cover changes and detailed geospatial mining data for Colombia, we show a growing contribution of legal mining to national deforestation: 3.4% over the 2001–2018 period, with a peak at 5.6% in 2017. During this period, around 121 819 ha have been deforested inside legal mining concessions, and an estimation of over 400 000 ha deforested by both legal and illegal. Gold and coal are the most important legally-mined materials in Colombia associated to deforestation, particularly in the recent years with 511% and 257% tree cover loss increases respectively (average over 2016–2018 compared to 2001–2015 average of mined material deforestation average). Three Colombian departments summed out ∼70% of the national deforestation occurring in legal concessions: in 2018, up to 23% of deforestation in Antioquia was taking place in legal mines (gold producer). Finally, we found that only 1% (respectively, 3%) of the concessions contribute to 60% (>90%) of the legal mining-related deforestation, mainly driven by large clearings to agriculture. Environmental law enforcement, monitoring activities and engaging the mining industry in effective forest conservation and landscape restoration strategies are urgently needed in Colombia for preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Pickering emulsions stabilized by the interaction of palmitic acid (PA) and silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) at the water/oil interface have been studied using different alkane oil phases. The interaction of palmitic acid and SiNPs has a strong synergistic character in relation to the emulsion stabilization, leading to an enhanced emulsion stability in relation to that stabilized only by the fatty acid. This results from the formation of fatty acid-nanoparticle complexes driven by hydrogen bond interactions, which favor particle attachment at the fluid interface, creating a rigid armor that minimizes droplet coalescence. The comparison of emulsions obtained using different alkanes as the oil phase has shown that the hydrophobic mismatch between the length of the alkane chain and the C16 hydrophobic chain of PA determines the nature of the emulsions, with the solubility of the fatty acid in the oil phase being a very important driving force governing the appearance of phase inversion.
Deforestation is a documented driver of biodiversity loss and ecosystem services in the tropics. However, less is known on how interacting regional and local-level anthropogenic and ecological disturbances such as land use activities, human populations, and armed conflict affect carbon storage and emissions in Neotropical forests. Therefore, we explored how local-scale, socio-ecological drivers affect carbon dynamics across space and time in a region in Colombia characterized by deforestation, land use cover (LULC) changes, and armed conflict. Specifically, using available municipal level data from a period of armed conflict (2009–2012), spatiotemporal analyses, and multivariate models, we analyzed the effects of a suite of socio-ecological drivers (e.g., armed conflict, illicit crops, human population, agriculture, etc.) on deforestation and carbon storage-emission dynamics. We found that about 0.4% of the initial forest cover area was converted to other LULC types, particularly pastures and crops. Gross C storage emissions were 4.14 Mt C, while gross carbon sequestration was 1.43 Mt C; primarily due to forest regeneration. We found that livestock ranching, illegal crop cultivation, and rural population were significant drivers of deforestation and carbon storage changes, while the influential role of armed conflict was less clear. However, temporal dynamics affected the magnitude of LULC effects and deforestation on carbon storage and emissions. The approach and findings can be used to better inform medium to long-term local and regional planning and decision-making related to forest conservation and ecosystem service policies in Neotropical forests experiencing disturbances related to global change and socio-political events like armed conflict.
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