In 1997, ecologists Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs pitched a curious idea to an orange juice company in Costa Rica.
In exchange for donating a portion of its untouched forest land to the Guanacaste Natural Reserve, the park will allow the company to dump waste orange peels and pulp for free in a heavily grazed, deforested area.
A year later, a thousand trucks poured into the national park, unloading more than 12,000 tons of sticky, mealy, orange compost onto the worn-out land.
The site has remained untouched and largely unchecked for more than a decade. A marker was placed to ensure future researchers can find and study it.
Sixteen years later, Janzen sent graduate student Timothy Treuer to find food waste dump sites.
Trull initially set out to find a large placard marking the episode, but failed.
Orange peels were first deposited in 1996.
Photo by Dan Jensen.
“It’s a big sign with bright yellow lettering. We should be able to see it,” Trull said. After wandering around for half an hour without finding anything, he consulted Janzen, who gave him more detailed instructions on how to find the plot.
Troyer was shocked when he returned a week later and confirmed he was in the right place. Compared to neighboring barren pastures, the food waste dump is “like night and day”.
Orange peel deposit site (left) and adjacent pasture (right).
Photo by Leland Weldon.
“It’s hard to believe that the only difference between the two areas is a pile of orange peels. They look like completely different ecosystems,” he explains.
The area was heavily vegetated and he still couldn’t find the sign.
Troyer and a team of researchers from Princeton University spent the next three years studying the site.
The findings, published in the journal Restoration Ecology, highlight how discarded fruit parts may completely aid the region’s recovery.
Ecologists measured various qualities of the site and compared them with an area of former pasture across from a channel used for dumping orange peels two decades ago. The orange peel deposit site has two dozen vegetation and is the most lush compared to neighboring parcels that are dominated by a single tree species.
Laboratory technician Erik Schilling explores a patch of newly grown orange peels.
Photo by Tim Trull.
In addition to richer biodiversity, richer soil and a more developed tree canopy, researchers also found a terra (a dog-sized weasel) and a giant fig tree three feet in diameter on the plot Tree.
“If you had 20 people climbing up that tree at the same time, it would have no problem supporting the weight,” said Jon Choi, a co-author on the paper who did most of the soil work. analyze. “That thing is huge.”
Recent evidence suggests that secondary tropical forests, which grow after original inhabitants have been cleared, are critical for mitigating climate change.
The scene after the accumulation of orange peels in 1998.
Photo by Dan Jensen.
“We don’t want companies to just throw waste everywhere, but if it’s science-driven and there’s restorationist involvement in addition to companies, I think that does have a lot of potential,” Trull said. potential.
The next step, he believes, is to study whether other ecosystems (dry forests, cloud forests, savannas) respond in the same way to similar sediments.
Two years after the initial survey, Troyer returned again to try to find signs marking the site.
Since his first reconnaissance mission in 2013, Treuer has visited the site more than 15 times. Choi visited more than 50, but none of them found the original sign.
The scope of the region’s transformation became truly clear in 2015, when Trull, with the help of senior author David Wilcove and Princeton University professor Rob Pringle, finally found it under a clump of vines.
Sign after clearing the vines.
Photo by Tim Trull.
“It’s a big horn sign,” Choi emphasized.
Thanks to two scientists, a flash of inspiration and a humble peel, 19 years of prayer finally buried it.
This article was originally published on August 23, 2017
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