Back

Amazon biodiversity is at risk from metal contamination due to mining activity

Moulatlet, G. M.; Capparelli, M.; Thomas, C.; Boyle, B.; Feng, X.; Frazier, A.; Hinojo-Hinojo, C.; Herrera, J.; Nahomi, L.; Lechner, A.; Maitner, B.; Newman, E.; Nikolopoulos, E.; Roehrdanz, P.; Song, L.; Valencia-Rodriguez, D.; Yang, W.; Merow, C.; Silman, M.; VIllalobos, F.; Macklin, M.; Enquist, B. J.

2025-05-26 ecology
10.1101/2025.05.21.654597 bioRxiv
Show abstract

The Amazon basin hosts the most biodiverse and intact ecosystems on Earth, yet human activities are an increasing threat. Metal contamination due to mining constitutes one of these major threats, but its impacts remain poorly quantified. We provide the first quantitative assessment of biodiversity exposure to mining-associated metals--mercury [Hg], arsenic [As], copper [Cu], Zinc [Zn], and lead [Pb]--across the Amazon. Around 66% of the Amazons 38,890 species of birds, plants, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes are exposed to metal contamination, including biodiversity hotspots and Indigenous territories. Safeguarding the Amazons role as a global reservoir of biodiversity, ecosystem function, and cultural heritage requires addressing metal contamination not only as a localized issue, but as a pervasive threat to global biodiversity.

Matching journals

The top 6 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.