The Effects of Soil Depth and Other Soil Characteristics on Plant Community Development in North Dakota

Abstract

Revegetation of mined lands in North

Rates of Pedogenesis in Reclaimed Lands as Compared to Rates of Natural Pedogenesis

“…This includes reconstructing soil profiles, returning land to its approximate original contours, and establishing a grass and legume cover except on land returned immediately to agricultural production (Plass, 2000). The requirement for reclamation has led to a number of different ways to evaluate the effectiveness of soil reclamation techniques, including organic C and/or N accumulation in the soil (Alexander, 1989;Shrestha and Lal, 2006;Pietrzykowski and Krzaklewski, 2007;Miletić et al, 2012), reduction in bulk density and void creation (Potter et al, 1988;Thomas et al, 2000;Ussiri et al, 2006), formation of soil structure (Thomas et al, 2000;Ussiri et al, 2006), improvements in pH and/or base saturation percentage (Alexander, 1989;Miletić et al, 2012), soil nutrient availability (Rowland et al, 2009), crop yields or above ground biomass production (Gardiner, 1983;Doll et al, 1984;Wick et al, 2005), plant species diversity and richness (Rowland et al, 2009;Rydgren et al, 2011), and measures of soil biological activity (Elkins et al, 1984;Dangi et al, 2012;Qian et al, 2012).…”