Soil physical properties of agriculturally reclaimed area after lignite mine: A case study from central Poland - Beata Kołodziej; Maja Bryk; Anna Słowińska-Jurkiewicz; Krzysztof Otremba; Mirosława Gilewska (2016)
For the assessment of the extent of post-mine land degradation, arranging managementpractices for sustainable land use, and evaluation of reclamation success research onphysical properties of soil plays significant role. The aim of this study was to quantifyand interpret the effects of varied agricultural reclamation methods in order to assesswhich of the treatments yielded higher soil quality with respect to its physical state.Basic physical and chemical parameters (texture, particle and bulk density, totalporosity, total organic carbon and pH), soil water characteristic curves, water and airpermeability, structure of the soil damaged by mining in the area of internal dumpingground Pątnów (Central Poland) were therefore measured. The soil samples were takenfrom the following 5 different variants of over 30-year-long reclamation: black fallow(BF), monoculture of winter wheat (WW), monoculture of winter wheat with a singleapplication in 1992 of lignite dust (WW+L), monoculture of alfalfa with orchard grassin the proportion of 90/10% (A+G), and spontaneous succession (SS). We collectedfrom each treatment: 12 soil cores for soil water and air properties; 6-kg composite bulksamples for basic physical and chemical properties of soil; 1 undisturbed soil block forstructure analysis. The reclamation methods applied on the post-mining groundsinfluenced in a diverse manner the physical state of the 0–10 cm layer of the developedtechnogenic soil. Bulk density values generally decreased with the increase of numberof factors potentially loosening the soil structure. The studied plots had sandy loam orloamy sand texture which determined their overall air and water properties. The soilswere characterized by high macroporosity and favourable content of water available forplants. Less beneficial conditions of the soil were associated with air and waterpermeability. The present studies indicated that spontaneous succession, with thehighest typological diversity of vegetation, contributed to the most preferred soilphysical state. Remaining variants of reclamation (including black fallow withoutvegetation) also provided sufficient air and water relations in the soils. However, itshould be emphasised that plants play an important role in TOC accumulation andensuring relative stability of soil structure, therefore rehabilitation of post-mininggrounds involving vegetation is recommended.
Keywords: agricultural reclamation; image analysis; mine soil