Temporal and spatial variability of physico-chemical properties in reclaimed soil after borehole mining - Beata Kołodziej; Maja Bryk; Jacek Antonkiewicz (2024)
Mining contributes to the creation of degraded areas that are difficult to rehabilitate because they are subject to various transformations. Specifically, sulphur extraction using the Frasch borehole method causes multidirectional changes of soil properties and thus presents challenges for post-mining rehabilitation. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of agricultural reclamation and to understand how the soil recovers over time by assessing the spatio-temporal variability of the reclaimed soil after borehole sulphur mining. Selected soil properties and spectral indices based on satellite data were analysed: before reclamation, three years after reclamation and 15 years after reclamation. Texture, bulk density, porosity, water capacity, TOC and pH were measured and distribution maps of these parameters were generated using kriging. Additionally, maps of spectral indices (Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index,Normalized Difference Soil Moisture Index, Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index, EnhancedVegetation Index and Red–Green Index) based on Landsat imagery were created tosupport the field survey data. The soil revealed high temporal and spatial variability, asevidenced by the distributions of measured parameters and their coefficients of variationat the reclamation stages. Multidirectional remodelling of the soil structure occurred,resulting in changes in the differential porosity, field water capacity, texture, reactionand TOC. Statistically confirmed differences both in soil parameters between samplingpoints and in field means between reclamation stages were observed. The variability ofthe physico-chemical parameters at the individual sampling point also differed betweenthe reclamation stages. We observed a general trend towards homogenisation of thespatial distributions of the soil parameters. This was also confirmed by the maps ofspectral indices, which showed establishment and development of a continuousvegetation cover and the subsequent improvement of its condition.
Keywords: air and water properties; geostatistics; Landsat; meadow; sulphur mine; total organic carbon