A not so cool Harlley's legacy: The catastrophic human-made Trindade Island devastation and its recovery

• Published in: Applied soil ecology : a section of Agriculture, ecosystems & environment ecosystems & environment, 2021-11, Vol.167, p.104105, Article 104105
• Main Authors: de Lima Martins, Gustavo Sampaio, Rodrigues, Edmo Montes, Costa, Maurício Dutra, da Rocha Campos, André Narvaes, Tótola, Marcos Rogério
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Microbial indicators; Soil biochemistry; Soil quality; Vegetation restoration
• ISSN: 0929-1393; 1873-0272
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsoil.2021.104105

Human occupation of Trindade Island caused the decline of much of its vegetation and pronounced changes of the island's landscape. The main factor behind these changes was human colonization and the introduction of goats by Edmond Harlley in 1700. Without natural predators on the island, these animals proliferated uncontrolled and consumed almost all plant cover. High declivities in most parts of the island led to soil erosion and loss of surface soil. The goats were finally eradicated in 2005, allowing vegetation to recover since then. This work explored the hypothesis that the recovery of the island's vegetation was accompanied by the recovery of physicochemical characteristics and soil biological functions. Soils in revegetated areas showed higher values of microbial biomass, basal respiration, microbial quotient, mineralizable nitrogen, and enzymatic activities, and lower metabolic quotient. Principal component analyzes demonstrated that the correlations between the indicators and the principal components remained practically unchanged in two sampling periods (rainy and dry season). Biological indicators are more related to the presence or absence of vegetation than to the type of vegetation, soil physicochemical properties or time of sampling. The natural recovery of the vegetation, combined with the microbiological indicators of soil, demonstrate the improvement of the insular ecosystem after goats were eradicated. •The revegetation of Trindade Island increased the soil microbiological function.•There was no seasonal effect on microbial indicators for a same soil in the island.•The revegetation of Trindade Island provides recovery of the soil quality.