Rehabilitation of Artisanal Mining Gold Land in West Lombok, Indonesia: 2. Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Status of Tailings and Surrounding Soils

Artisanal mining plays an important role in the Indonesia economy; however, it has created serious environmentaldestruction. The prohibition of artisanal mining is not a wise policy and never works. A more valuable strategy isto encourage artisanal mining; however, the associated poor health, safety, and environmental conditions must beimproved. Therefore, effective rehabilitation of the environment post mining is essential. Phytoremediation isconsidered to be one method to achieve this rehabilitation. In this method, the interaction of plant roots withmycorrhiza is one of the key determinants of successful rehabilitation. A study to identify the indigenousmycorrhiza present in soil was carried out at an artisanal gold mining region at Sekotong, West Lombok, Indonesia.Soil samples were collected from the rhizosphere of a selection of indigenous plant species for the identification ofthe associated mycorrhizal fungi. Rhizosphere samples were collected from a normal agricultural soil as well aswaste rock and mine tailings. The plants studied were Acassia sp, Gmelina arborea, Leucaena glauca, Tectoniagrandis, Manihot utilissima, and Zea mays. There was an abundance of mycorrhizal fungi species associated withall observed plants, with the dominant genus being Glomus. The spore density varied from 77 – 240 spores/100g innatural soils, with the percentage of infected roots varying from 10 to 40%, and decreasing as the soil wasdisturbed. Some of these mycorrhizal fungi showed a relatively good ability to grow in the heavy metalcontaminated gold mine tailing.