From the Ground Up: Prairies on Reclaimed Mine Land—Impacts on Soil and Vegetation

Rebecca M. Swab, Nicola Lorenz, Nathan R. Lee, Steven W. Culman and Richard P. Dick
Additional contact information
Rebecca M. Swab: MAD Scientist Associates, Westerville, OH 43081, USA
Nicola Lorenz: School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Nathan R. Lee: School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Steven W. Culman: School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH 44691, USA
Richard P. Dick: School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

Land, 2020, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-19

Abstract: After strip mining, soils typically suffer from compaction, low nutrient availability, loss of soil organic carbon, and a compromised soil microbial community. Prairie restorations can improve ecosystem services on former agricultural lands, but prairie restorations on mine lands are relatively under-studied. This study investigated the impact of prairie restoration on mine lands, focusing on the plant community and soil properties. In southeast Ohio, 305 ha within a ~2000 ha area of former mine land was converted to native prairie through herbicide and planting between 1999–2016. Soil and vegetation sampling occurred from 2016–2018. Plant community composition shifted with prairie age, with highest native cover in the oldest prairie areas. Prairie plants were more abundant in older prairies. The oldest prairies had significantly more soil fungal biomass and higher soil microbial biomass. However, many soil properties (e.g., soil nutrients, β-glucosoidase activity, and soil organic carbon), as well as plant species diversity and richness trended higher in prairies, but were not significantly different from baseline cool-season grasslands. Overall, restoration with prairie plant communities slowly shifted soil properties, but mining disturbance was still the most significant driver in controlling soil properties. Prairie restoration on reclaimed mine land was effective in establishing a native plant community, with the associated ecosystem benefits.

Keywords: reclamation; prairie restoration; β-glucosoidase activity; EL-FAME; soil microorganisms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/11/455/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/11/455/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:11:p:455-:d:446657

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().