Initial mapping of secondary succession in places disturbed by mining of the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area in Mongolia shows a possible innovative direction taken by afforestation in order to prevent further expansion of the Gobi Desert in northern Mongolia. The study results from the knowledge of secondary succession of mined areas, which are classified as the remains and consequences of prospecting and mining work dated to the Soviet times. Ongoing succession on sites affected by mining is very slow. In quarry dumps and canavas, herb layer has not been recovered despite the fact that the prospecting and mining activities had finished more than 30 years ago. Herbs biodiversity is very poor in these areas. Conversely, representatives of the tree layer, especially Larix sibirica and Populus tremula, are found far from the continuous forest; they colonized sites located within the aridized steppe. We assume that the main factor of successful tree growth on the mining activities remains consists in the humidity condensation due to and caused by the specific shape of the canavas and dumps. Trees prosperity on these extreme habitats can be ensured particularly in the early stages of growth when the tree roots are unable to reach the groundwater table. Detail mapping of quantitative and qualitative parameters of trees shows that the dump is an ideal shape of self-watering condensation mound for forest growth and can prevent the desertification as well.

The paper is focused on the issue of metals migration within the forest environment affected by deep mining of metals and the possibility how to immobilize them using an environment-friendly method. First, the paper presents the information about metal content in the tree leaves in alluvial recipients polluted by metals from uranium deep mining at Dolní Rožínka, the Czech Republic. X-ray fluorescence analysis of dried leaves results showed the increased content of Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Rb, Sr, Zn and U; it corresponds to the most seriously polluted areas in the world comparing with the scientific literature. However, statistically, we did not succeed to demonstrate in none of areas of interest the element heterogeneity between the upper, middle and lower streams segments. Element habitat homogeneity can be caused by current stand species composition where Picea abies L. dominates and this fact results in the negative impact on the soil pH since it is a primary factor of metals immobilization in the ecosystem and their transformation into toxic variations. Within the area of interest, there is demonstrated positive effect of reconstruction of forest stands, which are close to the dominating deciduous trees, especially Fagus silvatica L. This management change in the selected interested forest stands can result in Ca supply of up to 39 kg.ha −1 from strictly natural sources, which might be a perspective alternative to liming.

Meadows occupy more than 23 % of agricultural land in the Czech Republic and also represent the largest pool of carbon in soil organic matter. The organic material is an essential component of healthy soil. Decomposition of organic matter is a biological process, affected by high amount of N and P fertilizer applied in the second half of the twentieth century. This work presents the analysis of the effect of available nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus on the activity of cellulolytic microorganisms in permanent grassland of Sanguisorba-Festucetum comutatae association in the soil surface in the Protected Landscape Area of Žďárské Hills. Contents of available nutrients established by the Mehlich III method were measured ex situ. Data referring cellulose decomposition rates were obtained in situ using the standard mesh-bag method. In the field experiment, the highest loss of cellulose was recorded in variants with the addition of nutrients (PK, 90N + PK and 180N + PK) with result 90.38 % on average. The difference was statistically significant, compared with the control variant without added nutrients 27.87 % (P < 0.05). The added amount of nitrogen in the variant 90 kg of N + PK per ha had no significant effect on loss of cellulose compared to PK variant, as well as variant 180 kg of N + PK per ha. From the results obtained, it is evident that the highest decomposition of cellulose was observed at variant with added phosphorus, compared to variant with nitrogen. Moreover, the effect of different intensity of grassland utilization was found: the amount of decomposed cellulose was higher in two variants (control and 90N + PK) of two cut system in comparison with the same variant in three cut system.