Successful Oak Establishment on a Reclaimed Surface Mine

Davidson, Walter H.; Freeland, Albert W.; Elison, Bradley

doi:10.21000/jasmr90010295

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Poor site fertility and severe competition may adversely affect seedling survival and growth on mine reclamation sites (Lunt & Hedger 2003;Andrews & Broome 2006). The poor site fertility reflected by low soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrients suggests that the use of high-quality planting stock or appropriate silvicultural techniques (Davidson et al 1995;Bendfeldt et al 2001;Groninger et al 2006) could benefit seedling field performance and restoration success. It has been shown that the nutritional status of a plant can serve as a better indicator of quality and field success than morphological indicators (Quoreshi & Timmer 2000).…”

Section: Field Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Nursery Nitrogen Loading Improves Field Performance of Bareroot Oak Seedlings Planted on Abandoned Mine Lands

Salifu

Jacobs

Birge

2009

Restoration Ecology

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Although mine reclamation sites are important targets for ecological restoration, they are generally difficult to regenerate successfully. We evaluated the importance of nursery nutrient loading as a new approach to enhance forest restoration on abandoned mine lands. Northern red oak (Quercus rubra) and White oak (Q. alba) seedlings were nitrogen (N) loaded for 18 weeks at a bareroot nursery in southern Indiana, United States. Fertility treatments followed conventional or modified exponential functions to synchronize N supply with plant demand. Subsequently, nursery-grown seedlings were outplanted the following year onto a mine reclamation site in southwestern Indiana to evaluate effects of nursery N loading on first-year field performance. Nursery N loading promoted total plant dry mass production 25-129% in Red oak and 50-184% in White oak compared to unfertilized plants. Nitrogen loading increased N content 88-145% and potassium (K) content 16-71% for Red oak and N content 124-250% and K content 16-93% for White oak relative to controls. When outplanted, N loading resulted in high seedling survival (>84%) and increased total plant dry mass production 14-30% for Red oak and 23-52% for White oak. Nitrogen loading increased plant N uptake 14-102% in Red oak and 32-105% in White oak under field conditions. Exponential N loading demonstrates potential as a viable technique to improve seedling outplanting performance and reclamation success in Indiana and elsewhere.

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