An application of the plant functional group concept to restoration practice on coal mine spoil heaps

Abstract

The history of coal mining in South Poland has left a legacy of many spoil heaps across the landscape. These have presented the opportunity to study their colonisation and spontaneous successional sequences over a long time period. We use the plant functional group (PFG) approach to characterize and compare species diversity on spoil heaps of different ages by utilising the ecological characteristics (PFG categories) of the species recorded during the course of spontaneous vegetation development. By changing species frequency into functional group frequency it was possible to find the significant differences in the functional composition of the studied vegetation and to analyze the dataset using non-parametric statistics. There was a small increase in the number of species over time, while the frequency of geophytes, nanophanerophytes and megaphanerophytes increased significantly. A significant increase was also recorded for the frequency of competitors, stress-tolerators and stress-tolerant competitors and for native species. We found that the significant differences in species composition measured as PFG diversity occurred between the youngest and the oldest age classes. The PFG approach provided valuable insights into the nature of the species composition of the developing vegetation on hard-coal mine spoil heaps. We suggest that it could be usefully applied in restoration practice in the future by facilitating the natural colonization of native species adapted to local conditions and thus retaining the local gene pool in these areas.

Effects of Calamagrostis epigejos, Chamaenerion palustre and Tussilago farfara on nutrient availability and microbial activity in the surface layer of spoil heaps after hard coal mining

“…They encroach on spoil heaps early, almost immediately after completion of waste disposal, and do not require any preparatory treatments (Wo zniak, 2010). They are relatively resistant to physical and chemical stress and to soil disturbances, and can quickly establish dense cover (Kompała et al, 2004;Piekarska-Stachowiak et al, 2014). Since these plants are different in many respects and tend to co-exist, at least in the pioneer stages, they add to microhabitat heterogeneity.…”

Vegetation diversity on coal mine spoil heaps – how important is the texture of the soil substrate?

“…However, according to field observations these gangue spoil heaps, despite their unfavorable conditions, are effectively colonized by plants and animals with different habitat preferences over time, but, the colonisation processes are multidimensionally related, complicated and still poorly understood (Piekarska-Stachowiak et al 2014;Tropek et al 2017;Talik et al 2018). Long term studies of the spontaneously developed vegetation on post-coal mine sites in Upper Silesia have revealed that the species composition of vegetation patches is based on the abundance of a few dominant plant species accompanied by a number of much less abundant species (Woźniak 2003;Woźniak and Cohn 2007;Piekarska-Stachowiak et al 2014). According to the Bmass ratioĥ ypothesis (Grime 1979) dominant species play the driving role in ecosystem functioning processes and some of the analyses of relationships between vegetation diversity and soil texture are focused exclusively on the trait characteristics of the dominant species (e.g.…”

Cities and Disturbed Areas as Man-made Shelters for Orchid Communities

“…As a result, 70 species of orchids in the investigated manGenerally, man-made areas are settled by common species demonstrating wide tolerance to habitat conditions (Latzel et al, 2011;Piekarska-Stachowiak et al, 2014). However, disturbed habitats could also function as a refuge for rare and endangered plants (Greenwood and Gemmell, 1978;Heindl and Ullmann, 1991;Ullmann et al, 1998;Brändle et al, 2003;Nowak, 2005Nowak, , 2006Esfeld et al, 2008;Kirpluk and Bomanowska, 2008;Reisch, 2006;van Kleef et al, 2012;Zielińska et al, 2016).…”

“…It has been stated that anthropogenic habitats are colonised mainly by indigenous flora, characteristic of a given area (Piekarska-Stachowiak et al, 2014). This process of spreading native species to human-made habitats is called apophytism (Jackowiak, 2006;Sukopp, 2006Sukopp, , 2008.…”