Can a Blend of Amendments Be an Important Component of a Rehabilitation Strategy for Surface Coal Mined Soils?

Amanuel B. Abraha, Eyob H. Tesfamariam and Wayne F. Truter
Additional contact information
Amanuel B. Abraha: Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028 Pretoria, South Africa
Eyob H. Tesfamariam: Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028 Pretoria, South Africa
Wayne F. Truter: Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028 Pretoria, South Africa

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: Soil compaction impedes plant growth by negatively affecting water infiltration, soil aeration, access to soil water and nutrients, and consequently restricts root development. Previous studies to alleviate such problems in rehabilitated mine soils using a single amendment material did not provide a long lasting solution. The aim of the study was to quantify the role of different amendments in alleviating selected soil hydraulic properties. Five single amendment materials and three different blends of amendments were mixed thoroughly with degraded mine soil in a 1:3 (amendment:soil) ratio and packed in columns. Two additional unamended soils with different bulk densities were included as benchmarks. In general, the application of amendments reduced bulk density (BD) by 4–20%, enhanced infiltration rate by 15–70%, increased porosity by 5–35% and increased plant available water (PAW) by 9–33% compared with the unamended soils. Between amendments, the blends of amendments reduced BD by 9–16%, enhanced infiltration rate by 17–59%, increased porosity by 6–32%, and PAW by 4–28% compared with single amendments. The study showed that a blend of amendments have better soil restoration capacity through improving porosity, infiltration rate and plant available water. A blend of amendments therefore has the potential to be a sustainable and an important component of a rehabilitation strategy for surface coal mined soils.

Keywords: degraded soils; pore size distribution; soil compaction; soil remediation; water retention curve (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4297/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/16/4297/ (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:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:16:p:4297-:d:255972

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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