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Plants predict the mineral mines – A methodological approach to use indicator plant species for the discovery of mining sites

INTRODUCTION: There has been limited research conducted on the identifications/methodological approaches of using plant species as indicators of the presence of economically, important mineral resources. OBJECTIVES: This study set out to answer the following questions (1) Do specific plant species a...

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Autores principales: Ahmad, Zeeshan, Mulk Khan, Shujaul, Page, Sue, Alamri, Saad, Hashem, Mohamed
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9263987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35777902
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2021.10.005
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author Ahmad, Zeeshan
Mulk Khan, Shujaul
Page, Sue
Alamri, Saad
Hashem, Mohamed
author_facet Ahmad, Zeeshan
Mulk Khan, Shujaul
Page, Sue
Alamri, Saad
Hashem, Mohamed
author_sort Ahmad, Zeeshan
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: There has been limited research conducted on the identifications/methodological approaches of using plant species as indicators of the presence of economically, important mineral resources. OBJECTIVES: This study set out to answer the following questions (1) Do specific plant species and species assemblages indicate the presence of mineral deposits? and (2) if yes, then what sort of ecological, experimental, and statistical procedures could be employed to identify such indicators? METHODS: Keeping in mind these questions, the vegetation of subtropical mineral mines sites in northern Pakistan were evaluated using Indicator Species Analysis (ISA), Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). RESULTS: A total of 105 plant species belonging to 95 genera and 43 families were recorded from the three mining regions. CA and TWCA classified all the stations and plants into three major mining zones, corresponding to the presence of marble, coal, and chromite, based on Jaccard distance and Ward’s linkage methods. This comprehended the following indicator species: Ficus carica, Isodon rugosus and Ajuga parviflora (marble indicators); Olea ferruginea, Gymnosporia royleana and Dicliptera bupleuroides (coal indicators); and Acacia nilotica, Rhazya stricta and Aristida adscensionis (chromite indicators) based on calculated Indicator Values (IV). These indicators were reconfirmed by CCA and SEM analysis. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that ISA is one of the best techniques for the identification/selection of plant indicator species, followed by reconfirmation via CCA and SEM analysis. In addition to establishing a robust approach to identifying plant indicator species, our results could have application in mineral prospecting and detection.
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spelling pubmed-92639872022-07-09 Plants predict the mineral mines – A methodological approach to use indicator plant species for the discovery of mining sites Ahmad, Zeeshan Mulk Khan, Shujaul Page, Sue Alamri, Saad Hashem, Mohamed J Adv Res Basic and Biological Science INTRODUCTION: There has been limited research conducted on the identifications/methodological approaches of using plant species as indicators of the presence of economically, important mineral resources. OBJECTIVES: This study set out to answer the following questions (1) Do specific plant species and species assemblages indicate the presence of mineral deposits? and (2) if yes, then what sort of ecological, experimental, and statistical procedures could be employed to identify such indicators? METHODS: Keeping in mind these questions, the vegetation of subtropical mineral mines sites in northern Pakistan were evaluated using Indicator Species Analysis (ISA), Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). RESULTS: A total of 105 plant species belonging to 95 genera and 43 families were recorded from the three mining regions. CA and TWCA classified all the stations and plants into three major mining zones, corresponding to the presence of marble, coal, and chromite, based on Jaccard distance and Ward’s linkage methods. This comprehended the following indicator species: Ficus carica, Isodon rugosus and Ajuga parviflora (marble indicators); Olea ferruginea, Gymnosporia royleana and Dicliptera bupleuroides (coal indicators); and Acacia nilotica, Rhazya stricta and Aristida adscensionis (chromite indicators) based on calculated Indicator Values (IV). These indicators were reconfirmed by CCA and SEM analysis. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that ISA is one of the best techniques for the identification/selection of plant indicator species, followed by reconfirmation via CCA and SEM analysis. In addition to establishing a robust approach to identifying plant indicator species, our results could have application in mineral prospecting and detection. Elsevier 2021-10-18 /pmc/articles/PMC9263987/ /pubmed/35777902 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2021.10.005 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Cairo University. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Basic and Biological Science
Ahmad, Zeeshan
Mulk Khan, Shujaul
Page, Sue
Alamri, Saad
Hashem, Mohamed
Plants predict the mineral mines – A methodological approach to use indicator plant species for the discovery of mining sites
title Plants predict the mineral mines – A methodological approach to use indicator plant species for the discovery of mining sites
title_full Plants predict the mineral mines – A methodological approach to use indicator plant species for the discovery of mining sites
title_fullStr Plants predict the mineral mines – A methodological approach to use indicator plant species for the discovery of mining sites
title_full_unstemmed Plants predict the mineral mines – A methodological approach to use indicator plant species for the discovery of mining sites
title_short Plants predict the mineral mines – A methodological approach to use indicator plant species for the discovery of mining sites
title_sort plants predict the mineral mines – a methodological approach to use indicator plant species for the discovery of mining sites
topic Basic and Biological Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9263987/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35777902
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jare.2021.10.005
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