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Costa Rica's Guanacaste National Park has turned into a vast woodland by accident. Ecologists have found that orange peel waste regenerated the trees inside the forest.
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"One of the most surprising results of our tree survey was the number, size and diversity of trees in the area treated with orange peels,” Timothy Treuer, a Princeton University researcher said.
Almost 20 years ago, thousands of trucks carrying 12,000 metric tons of peels and pulp, were left at the Guanacaste Park. The deal was reached with Del Oro, an orange juice company working close to the natural area.
Another orange juice company, TicoFruit, sued Del Oro saying that they had “defiled a national park” and caused the project to end. Now, the effects have grown large and wide.
“The area that received the orange peels was divided from the [area that did not receive the peels] by a single track dirt road, but the two areas looked like completely different ecosystems,” Treuer said.
The research team, made by Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs, ecologists at the University of Pennsylvania, determined that the orange peels were responsible for enriching the nutrients of the soil.
But still, the exact way the oils and bacteria worked has not been determined by the team.
“That’s the million dollar question that we don’t yet have the answer to,” Treuer said.
“I strongly suspect that it was some synergy between suppression of the invasive grass and rejuvenation of heavily degraded soils. There’s plenty of evidence of both of those factors limiting forest recovery in other parts of the tropics.”
They looked at changes in tree growth and soil nutrients between the orange peel site and an abandoned pasture that was 100 yards away. They found dramatic differences between the two studied areas; the land fertilized by the orange peels had richer soil, more tree biomass, a greater variety of tree species, and a larger forest canopy closure.
On one side was a pasture “with a few scattered scraggly trees,” he said. On the other, “was an overgrown jungle, so lush it required a machete to move through. Once I was done picking my jaw up off the ground, I realized that I was looking at something truly special. It blew my mind.”
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