Biodiversity on one of the post-mining heaps in the Silesian province (Poland)

Abstract

Waste generated by the hard coal mining and processing industries pose significant environmental hazard through, among other things, impacting water and soil. The process that is particularly dangerous is trace element accumulation. Excessive quantities of heavy metals pose grave threat to plants, humans and soil organisms. The purpose of the studies was to determine the content of heavy metals, such as Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn and Cu in the material collected at various distances from the peak of the mining waste heap in Czerwionka-Leszczyny and estimate their impact on quantities and diversity of soil organisms in those sites. Studies have shown a high degree of correlation between the distance from the top of the heap and the density and diversity of pedofauna. The highest abundance and diversity of soil invertebrates was observed at site 5 (1km from the post-mining heap). The content of heavy metals in the tested soils ranged for Cd from 1.18 to 1.54 mg/kg of dry mass (DM), for Cu 20.82–66.20 mg/kg DM, for Zn from 97.79 to 222 mg/kg DM, for Pb 27.20–50.18 mg/kg DM and for Ni from 5.55 mg/kg DM to 56.23 mg/kg DM. The contents of the analysed metals did not exceed their permitted levels in soil and earth as defined by the Regulation of the Minister of Environment of 2016 in the matter of the procedure for conducting the assessment of soil surface contamination. The obtained results indicate that the content of copper and nickel in the dried grass was significantly higher than in the soil.