Nitrogen recovery in reclaimed mine soil under different amendment practices in tandem with legume and non‐legume revegetation: A review

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) supply is the major limiting nutrient in most reclamation schemes. In reclaimed mine soil (RMS), examining the N dynamics can be especially informative for understanding constraints on recovery that restrict revegetation success. Scholarly studies worldwide have focused on exogenous N incorporation to alleviate N shortages in the agriculture, and forestry sectors. Currently, growing concerns for the negative consequences of mining have highlighted N deficiency as one of the most significantly identified abiotic limits. Only a few researchers have focused on the N transformation mechanisms in drastically altered mine soils. The review comprises the last 10 years’ research on mine reclamation approaches using legume and non‐legume plant communities. Also the capacity of different amendments to alleviate N shortages in mine soils is emphasized. The major findings of the present review suggest: (i) Revegetation using legume and non‐legume species is a self‐sustaining and economical alternative to mineral N fertilizer application; however, they cannot fully activate the biological N cycle in RMS. (ii) A more biological amendment‐assisted revegetation would enhance the key concepts of “soil‐biomass N balance” and would be ideal for N recovery in imbalanced mine soil. Altogether, grass‐legume seeding offers a potentially valuable mine reclamation tool for managing N and addressing the challenges of sustainable development.

Invasive weed‐based biochar facilitated the restoration of coal mine degraded land by modulating the enzyme activity and carbon sequestration

“…Gonzaga et al (2017) and Ghosh and Maiti (2021 b ) also reported similar increase in soil organic carbon by biochar application in degraded impoverished soil. Available‐N also improved in BC 10 and BC 20 probably due to its effect in spoil microbial and enzymatic activities which initiate the soil nitrogen cycle (Kloss et al 2014; Zhang et al 2018; Kumari & Maiti 2022). Similarly, the increase in exchangeable‐K can be due to the improvement of soil biology.…”

Mine Site Restoration: The Phytoremediation of Arsenic-Contaminated Soils

“…Available N is required by plants in high concentrations (1000 µg kg −1 dry matter) to enable them to grow, develop, and reproduce [17,129]. To improve plant productivity during phytoremediation, additional N may be required.…”

“…However, to increase the productivity of plants, soil amendments are needed [15,16]. Nitrogen (N) deficiency in mine soils is reported as an important issue that can significantly reduce plant productivity [17]. Several studies suggest that phytoremediation can be combined with other techniques (physical, chemical, and biological) to enhance the plant biomass and soil N content [18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

Role of biochar toward carbon neutrality

“…It could be that the well-developed pores of biochar serve as barriers that delay nutrient release from biochar matrix to the soil environment (Rombel et al 2022). It's critical that inorganic nutrients can be released gradually at a slow rate to prevent water contamination by nitrate and phosphate (Corbett et al 2022;Kumari and Maiti 2022;Yin et al 2022;Zou et al 2022). Thirdly, the organic matrix of biochar acts as promising habitat for plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) (Bertola et al 2019).…”