Understanding the impacts of Gold Mining on Biodiversity

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Phd Candidate Sean Glynn has just returned from fieldwork in Guyana. He explains about the data collecting method, its purpose and his hopes for the research here.

Phd Candidate Sean Glynn has been conducting fieldwork in Guyana working alongside the Guyana Geology and Mining Commission (GGMC) and Conservation International Guyana. His research has involved carrying out bird mist netting and invertebrate surveys at abandoned gold mines within the rainforest of Guyana and captured 616 birds and collected 246 butterflies and 2703 dung beetles.

Sean Glynn in Guyana, holding a Rufous-throated antbird
‘The purpose was to look at communities in mines of different ages, and compare that to nearby forest without mining.’ Glynn explained ‘Each taxa was sampled in the mine, at the edge of the mine and 100m into the forest. We also collected data at 2 sites that were 1km away from mining to compare to the mine data. The methods we used, aimed to study understory birds, butterflies and dung beetles, as they have been shown in previous studies, to react to small scale changes in the environment. Furthermore, the collection of invertebrates allow for accurate identification with a reference collection of specimens stored at the University of Guyana.’

‘My hope is that my research will give a better understanding of the impacts that this small scale gold mining has on different communities of animals. This research is also trying to understand how natural regeneration occurs and the different responses over time of bird, dung beetle and butterfly communities.’

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