Natural regeneration on land degraded by coal mining in a tropical climate: Lessons for ecological restoration from Indonesia

Abstract

There are few examples of primary succession from tropical conditions, especially on land degraded by human activity, for example, mine wastes. Such studies would assist in informing ecological restoration of these degraded sites. Here, a chronosequence approach was used to investigate early-stage primary succession on overburden spoil wastes derived from coal mining in a tropical climate over a 64-month period. Plant species composition and several microclimatic and spoil physicochemical and microbial properties were measured, and responses analysed using regression and multivariate (nonmetric multidimensional scaling) analyses. A clear primary successional process was described showing that vegetation cover and species richness generally increased through time with a successional pathway from graminoids and herbs as the early dominants, shrubs in midsuccession, and trees in the later-successional stages. Two important differences were noted between our results and primary successions elsewhere; a lower abundance of nitrogen-fixing species and the colonization by some late-successional shrubs and trees at the start. During the succession, aggregate stability and organic matter (total C) increased-whereas electrical conductivity and some potentially toxic elements (Al, B) decreased. The constant high spoil moisture content appears to be an important determinant of vegetation development during primary succession and may be a factor in the rapid pace of succession detected here. The lessons for ecological restoration for coal overburden spoil under tropical conditions are that succession can proceed relatively rapidly.

Molecular Ecological Network Complexity Drives Stand Resilience of Soil Bacteria to Mining Disturbances among Typical Damaged Ecosystems in China

“…In this study, there were 6, 10, 9, and 13 modules in the eigengene analysis of the PB, ZC, YQ, and DT networks, respectively. The module eigengenes explained 53%-81%, 61%-77%, 53%-81%, and 52%-70% of the variations in relative species abundance across the different samples in the PB, ZC, YQ, and DT networks, respectively ( Figure S1-S4 in Additional file [5][6][7][8]. All of the eigengenes explicated over 50% of the observed variations, which revealed that these eigengenes could represent species shift across different samples in the individual modules.…”

“…Assessment of the diversity and activity of the soil microbial community is essential to evaluate the success of reclamation or restoration. However, few studies have been conducted on the soil microbial community diversity where there is a high groundwater level, or in semiarid damaged mining areas [5][6][7]. In this study, we identified the dominant bacteria, which was critical to enhance our understanding, and determined the ecological attributes of soil bacterial communities, which are abundant and ubiquitous in the soil at different mining areas.…”

Recognition of Landscape Key Areas in a Coal Mine Area of a Semi-Arid Steppe in China: A Case Study of Yimin Open-Pit Coal Mine

“…Overall, the effects of open-pit mining on biodiversity and habitat quality are lasting. As similar studies report [30,56], open-pit mining has many serious consequences for ecosystems, including surface soil stripping, habitat degradation, and landscape fragmentation. The excavation, human occupation, and wastes disposal associated with mines reduces and fragments healthy landscape patches, decreasing connectivity, and leading to habitat islands of diminished size.…”

Ecological network analysis assesses the restoration success of disturbed mining soil in China

“…Soil microorganisms are an essential part of the soil ecosystem. SMCs play a key role in the processes of decomposing soil organic matter, nutrient cycling and utilization of nutrients by plants (Novianti et al, 2018;Yuan et al, 2018). After land reclamation, changes in the soil physical and chemical properties may provoke changes in key soil attributes (e.g.…”