ArticleEnvironmental science & technology2020
Deforestation Due to Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining Exacerbates Soil and Mercury Mobilization in Madre de Dios, Peru.
Article in Environmental science & technology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- Towards sustainable land use: A geospatial analysis of soil moisture content in a mining-induced degraded landscape of Ghana.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2026Article
- Total mercury contamination in fish species of Northwestern Ecuador and potential human health risks.PloS one · 2026Article
- Mercury Exposure, Gene Expression, and Intelligence Quotient in Afro-Descendant Children from Two Colombian Regions.Toxics · 2025Article
- Hydrological Connectivity Enhances Fish Biodiversity in Amazonian Mining Ponds: Insights From eDNA and Traditional Sampling.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- Combining acoustic survey and citizen science data yields enhanced species distribution models for tropical rainforest birds.PloS one · 2025Article
- Global mercury concentrations in biota: their use as a basis for a global biomonitoring framework.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2024Review
- Trends in Mercury Contamination Distribution among Human and Animal Populations in the Amazon Region.Toxics · 2024Review
- Article
- Evaluating atmospheric mercury (Hg) uptake by vegetation in a chemistry-transport model.Environmental science. Processes & impacts · 2022Article
- Reducing disease and death from Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) - the urgent need for responsible mining in the context of growing global demand for minerals and metals for climate change mitigation.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2022Article
- Adult Exposures to Toxic Trace Elements as Measured in Nails along the Interoceanic Highway in the Peruvian Amazon.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Efficacy of Hair Total Mercury Content as a Biomarker of Methylmercury Exposure to Communities in the Area of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Madre de Dios, Peru.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- A population-based mercury exposure assessment near an artisanal and small-scale gold mining site in the Peruvian Amazon.Journal of exposure science & environmental epidemiology · 2021Article
- Article
- Artificial lake expansion amplifies mercury pollution from gold mining.Science advances · 2020Article
- The impact of mercury on North American songbirds: effects, trends, and predictive factors.Ecotoxicology (London, England) · 2020Article
- Method for mapping HgMethodsX · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a significant contributor of mercury (Hg) contamination and deforestation across the globe. In the Colorado River watershed in Madre de Dios, Peru, mining and deforestation have increased exponentially since the 1980s, resulting in major socioeconomic shifts in the region and two national state of emergency (2016 and 2019) in response to concerns for wide-scale mercury poisoning by these activities. This research employed a watershed-scale soil particle detachment model and environmental field sampling to estimate the role of land cover change and soil erosion on river transport of Hg in a heavily ASGM-impacted watershed. The model estimated that observed decreases in forest cover increased soil mobilization by a factor of two in the Colorado River watershed during the 18 year period and by 4-fold in the Puquiri subwatershed (the area of most concentrated ASGM activity). If deforestation continues to increase at its current exponential rate through 2030, the annual mobilization of soil and Hg may increase by an additional 20-25% relative to 2014 levels. While, the estimated total mass of Hg transported by rivers is substantially less than the estimated tons of Hg used with ASGM in Peru, this research shows that deforestation associated with ASGM is an additional mechanism for mobilizing naturally occurring and anthropogenic Hg from terrestrial landscapes to aquatic environments in the region, potentially leading to bioaccumulation in fish and exposure to communities downstream.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.