Determination of suitable plant species for reclamation at an abandoned coal mine area

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine suitable plant species for reclamation of an abandoned coal mine area at Ovacik village within the borders of Yaprakli town in the province of Cankiri, Turkey. The paper comprises three basic parts: (i) sampling and analyses of several chemical-physical properties of the soil; (ii) sampling and identification of the natural plant species; and (iii) determination of topographic features of the study area by spatial analysis tools. Soil samples were taken from 0 to 30 cm depth at 15 sampling sites. Soil textural separates (percent sand, silt and clay), calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ), soil pH, electrical conductivity and soil organic matter (SOM) were measured. Soil properties, especially SOM content, pH and textural separates, exhibited significant variations at the sampling site. SOM content was considerably high and pH was low in the coal storage area. The plant composition of the study area was studied based on the plants collected during the period of vegetation from 2010 to 2011. The collected plants were suitably transformed to herbarium materials and identified according to modern systematic techniques. A total of 54 taxa belonging to 23 families were determined in the study area. The average slope of the study area is approximately 24% and the dominant aspect is south-east. By considering all features of the study area, a total of 28 taxa, excluding natural plant species identified on the site, were suggested for reclamation.

Assessment and abatement of the eco-risk caused by mine spoils in the dry subtropical climate

“…Issues of the landscape-geochemical exploration allowing quantitative assessment and delivery of practical advice on how to improve the ecological situation have been thoroughly examined, and a significant amount of environmental data are collected describing the impact of mining and processing industries, as well as practicable methods for rehabilitation of lands affected by the production of building materials among other things (Alguacil et al, 2006;Androkhanov et al, 2019;Doley et al, 2012;Kuter et al, 2014;Moreno-de las Heras, 2008;Pivnyak et al, 2011;Timofeev et al, 2014). However, the available assessment data obtained in the course of studies of territories affected by cement crude material mining include only concrete cases and contain no recommendations on how to handle environmental damage in other conditions beyond the limits of such cases.…”

“…Low-height and creeping juniper species are among the most common plants on rocky slopes and rocks in the region. Cade is photophilous, drought tolerant, and unpretentious to soil conditions (Alguacil et al, 2006;Caravaca et al, 2006;Kuter et al, 2014). Smoke tree, Cotinus coggygria Scop.…”

Groundwater nitrate and fluoride profiles, sources and health risk assessment in the coal mining areas of Salt Range, Punjab Pakistan

“…Continuous mining practices leading to deformation, strata movement, and subsidence. These can alter the physical properties of soils and result in their nitrogen leaching into soils as nitrate (Kuter et al 2014;Masilionytė et al 2014;Endale et al 2017). Such increasing trend of NO3levels in coal mining areas have been demonstrated in Elk Valley and West Line Creek, Canada, where rising concentrations (from 6.5 mg/l in 1994 to 38.5 mg/l NO3in 2006) were correlated to increasing volumes of coal mine waste rock (Mahmood et al 2017;Hendry et al 2018).…”

Comparison of the Disturbance of Soil Physical Quality Indices Between Different Underground Mining Stages in Semi-Arid Regions of Western China

“…These in uences can be restored through land reclamation and ecological restoration measures, which have been proved to be an effective way to restore the destructive environment in mining areas (Heras et al 2011, Krümmelbein and Raab 2012, Mukhopadhyay et al 2013, Qiu et al 2019, Xiao et al 2019). Land subsidence, as one of the signi cant in uences by underground coal mining, will not only change soil quality but also cause many other eco-environmental problems (Huang et al 2014, Kuter et al 2014, Qiu et al 2019, Wang et al 2017, Yang et al 2016, Yang et al 2018, Yang et al 2019). Statistics showed that 10,000 tons raw coal production would averagely lead to 0.2 hectares subsided lands in China (Bian et al 2010).…”