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Copper Smelter Effluent Effects on Sonoran Desert Vegetation
Author(s) -
Wood Charles W.,
Nash Thomas N.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.2307/1935056
Subject(s) - vegetation (pathology) , smelting , herbaceous plant , perennial plant , ecology , environmental science , plant community , copper , effluent , vegetation cover , geography , ecological succession , environmental engineering , biology , chemistry , grazing , medicine , organic chemistry , pathology
The vegetation of an Arizonan upland community near a recently inactivated copper smelter at Superior, Arizona was studied. Vegetational parameters of species diversity, density, and cover were inversely related to concentrations of Cu, Cd, Pb, Fe, and Zn in the soil. Near the smelter, annuals, herbaceous perennials, grasses, cacti, and some shrubs were almost entirely absent. The most probable cause of the observed vegetational changes is effluents particularly SO_2 and Cu, emitted by the copper smelter over its 47—yr history.