Vegetation and soil restoration in refuse dumps from open pit coal mines

Huang, Lei; Zhang, Peng; Hu, Yigang; Zhao, Yang

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2016.06.108

Cited by 125 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…The severe disturbance of mining has caused great changes in the inherent physicochemical and biological characteristics of the local soil, mainly in the form of serious damage to the soil aggregates, serious loss of nutrients and topographic changes [20]. Generally, the soil of dumps is mixed with particles of various sizes and rock fragments [17], which can be considered a type of reconstructed soil. precipitation [20] and the annual evaporation ranges from 1824.7-2896.1 mm.…”

Section: Study Area and Soil Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second portion was kept at 4°C for enzyme activity, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and microbial biomass There are five refuse dumps in the Heidagou opencast coal mine, at which vegetation construction started in 1995,1998,2003,2005 and 2014, respectively. We chose two of the largest refuse dumps for the study area: the northern dump, which began vegetation construction in 1995 and the eastern dump, which began vegetation construction in 1998 [17]. Although vegetation restoration succession was a slow process, the reclamation of dumps by revegetation can improve soil quality and establish a relatively stable ecosystem.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies have assessed the reclamation effectiveness of the reconstructed soil in mining areas, focusing on soil quality [13], physicochemical characteristics [14][15][16] and vegetation characteristics [17]. Although microbes play a vital role in ecosystem processes and even can serve as an indicator to evaluate the recovery status of the damaged environment [18], there remains insufficient information about the relationship among soil properties, soil microbial communities and vegetation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Bacterial Communities, Enzyme Activities, and Nutrients of Reconstructed Soil in a Mining Area on the Loess Plateau, China

Zhang

Hao

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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Soil microbes are the main driving forces and influencing factors of biochemical reactions in the environment. Study of ecological recovery after mining activities has prompted wider recognition of the importance of microbial diversity to ecosystem recovery; however, the response of soil bacterial communities to vegetation restoration types and soil biochemical properties remains poorly understood. The purpose of this research was to explore the soil bacterial communities and soil biochemical properties at four sampling sites (brushland (BL), forestland (FL), grassland (GL) and unreclaimed land (UL)) on the Loess Plateau, China, to evaluate the effect of vegetation restoration on the reconstructed soil in mining areas. In August 2017, samples were collected at the Heidaigou coal mine dumps. Illumina MiSeq sequencing was used to identify the structure of the soil bacterial community and evaluate its relationships with soil biochemical properties. The results showed that soil biochemical properties (soil organic matter, available phosphorus, urease, sucrase, microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass nitrogen) were significantly increased in BL, FL and GL relative to UL, indicating that the soil quality was significantly improved by vegetation restoration. In addition, the results showed that the vegetation restoration on the reconstructed soil in the mining area could significantly improve the operational taxonomic units (OTUs), abundance (ACE and Chao1) and diversity (Shannon and Simpson) indices of bacterial community and the dominant phyla were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria. With vegetation restoration, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria showed an increasing trend, while that of Actinobacteria showed a decreasing trend, and the dominant phyla were only significantly correlated with a few biochemical properties. Moreover, there were no changes in soil bacterial community structures across the four sampling sites and the response of the bacterial community to biochemical properties was not obvious. This implies that, although the region has experienced about 20 years of vegetation restoration, the microbial community still maintains good stability and lagging response to soil biochemical properties. Since the BL soil had better biochemical properties and higher bacterial richness and diversity, it was recommended as the optimum vegetation restoration type for soil reclamation in this area.

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Section: Study Area and Soil Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Bacterial Communities, Enzyme Activities, and Nutrients of Reconstructed Soil in a Mining Area on the Loess Plateau, China

Zhang

Hao

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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“…Ecological reclamation and restoration of mines are very important for sustainable development strategies, especially for land degradation after open-pit mining activities (Huang, Liu, & Liu, 2014;Huang, Zhang, Hu, & Zhao, 2016). In Yunnan Province, the government established a mechanism of strict responsibility, and it requires the mining companies to pay ecological compensation fund for the abandoned mines for better management.…”

Section: Suggestions For Future Vegetation Restoration In Mine Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation community composition along disturbance gradients of four typical open‐pit mines in Yunnan Province of southwest China

et al. 2018

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Open‐pit mining causes severe land degradation in Yunnan Province, Southwest China. Vegetation restoration on the degraded land with open‐pit mining is challenging due to great physical and chemical condition changes of the post‐mined landscape. In this study, we compared the vegetation community composition and environmental factors along three disturbance gradients (mining area, restoration area, and control area) in four typical open‐pit mine types (phosphate, zinc, tin, and iron sites). Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that there are significant differences in the vegetation communities along three gradients for these mine sites. Quality species were selected by indicator species analysis for vegetation restoration as follows: Chloris virgata Sw. and Artemisia princeps Pamp at the phosphate site; Coriaria nepalensis Wall., Artemisia princeps Pamp, and Picris hieracioides L. at the zinc site; Artemisia princeps Pamp at the tin site; and Panicum brevifolium L. at the iron site. Canonical Correspondence Analysis ordination and Monte Carlo permutation tests were further used to determine the effects of environmental factors on vegetation diversity. The results showed that Cd, As, Zn, Pb, TC, and altitude all had significant effects on vegetation diversity (P < 0.05). Additionally, we found that the integrated effects of these variables on vegetation were greater in the mining area than in the other two gradients based on the model with the lowest Akaike Information Criterion. These results suggest that any plans for vegetation restoration in open‐pit mining areas should take disturbance intensity, mine types, and critical environmental variables into account.

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“…Subsequently, the reclamation and revegetation of severely disturbed mining areas has attracted increased attention, and measures have been implemented for artificial revegetation in this region, such as the planting of arbors, bushes, and grasses, and natural vegetation recovery. The effects of revegetation and time on the properties of reclaimed mine soils have been studied widely (Zhao et al, 2013;Wang, Jiao & Bai, 2014;Huang et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2017;Yuan et al, 2017). However, there have been few evaluations of the effects of different revegetation patterns on the SOC and TN pools in reclaimed mine soils.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revegetation pattern affecting accumulation of organic carbon and total nitrogen in reclaimed mine soils

Zhang

Jia

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Selecting optimal revegetation patterns, i.e., patterns that are more effective for soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) accumulation, is particularly important for mine land reclamation. However, there have been few evaluations of the effects of different revegetation patterns on the SOC and TN in reclaimed mine soils on the Loess Plateau, China. In this study, the SOC and TN stocks were investigated at reclaimed mine sites (RMSs), including artificially revegetated sites (ARSs) (arbors (Ar), bushes (Bu), arbor-bush mixtures (AB), and grasslands (Gr)) and a natural recovery site (NRS), as well as at undisturbed native sites (UNSs). Overall, the SOC and TN stocks in the RMSs were lower than those in the UNSs over 10-13 years after reclamation. The SOC stocks in the RMSs and UNSs only differed in the top 0-20 cm of the soil (p < 0.05). Except for those in Ar, the SOC and TN stocks in the ARSs were significantly larger than those in the NRS (p < 0.05). Compared with those in the NRS, the total SOC stocks in the 100 cm soil interval increased by 51.4%, 59.9%, and 109.9% for Bu, AB, and Gr, respectively, and the TN stocks increased by 33.1%, 35.1%, and 57.9%. The SOC stocks in the 0-100 cm soil interval decreased in the order of Gr (3.78 kg m −2 ) > AB (2.88 kg m −2 ) ≥ Bu (2.72 kg m −2 ), and the TN stocks exhibited a similar trend. These results suggest that grasslands were more favorable than woodlands for SOC and TN accumulation in this arid area. Thus, in terms of the accumulation of SOC and TN, grassland planting is recommended as a revegetation pattern for areas with reclaimed mine soils. YQ. 2020. Revegetation pattern affecting accumulation of organic carbon and total nitrogen in reclaimed mine soils. PeerJ 8:e8563 http://doi.

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Vegetation and soil restoration in refuse dumps from open pit coal mines

Cited by 125 publications

References 62 publications

Effects of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Bacterial Communities, Enzyme Activities, and Nutrients of Reconstructed Soil in a Mining Area on the Loess Plateau, China

Effects of Vegetation Restoration on Soil Bacterial Communities, Enzyme Activities, and Nutrients of Reconstructed Soil in a Mining Area on the Loess Plateau, China

Vegetation community composition along disturbance gradients of four typical open‐pit mines in Yunnan Province of southwest China

Revegetation pattern affecting accumulation of organic carbon and total nitrogen in reclaimed mine soils

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