Vegetation Development in Central European Coal Mining Sites

• Published in: Soil Biota and Ecosystem Development in Post Mining Sites pp. 38 - 52
• Main Author: Prach, Karel
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom CRC Press 2014; Taylor & Francis Group
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY; Molecular biology
• ISBN: 9781466599314; 1466599316
• DOI: 10.1201/b15502-3

Mining activity despoils ca. 1% of the land surface (Walker 1999) and coal mining, especially that by the open-cast manner, contributes substantially to this figure. Technical reclamation of post-mining sites has usually prevailed, consisting of rough manipulations of the substrates, such as re-modelling, drainage, and covering the surface using various organic materials, followed by restoration toward either arable land, grassland, forest or water bodies (Whisenant 1999). Unassisted succession has been rarely included intentionally as a part of a restoration project (Bradshaw 1997, Prach et al. 2001, Prach et al. 2007). A large proportion of post-mining sites consists of overburden material dumped on spoil heaps. Such spoil heaps, if left to spontaneous succession, represent a very suitable subject in which to study the mechanisms of succession is possible, including colonization processes, competition and facilitation, relationships between vegetation and soil- forming processes, role of other biota, influence of landscape context on the rate and directions of succession, etc. Moreover, spoil heaps, although usually considered as negative elements in a landscape, may provide sites valuable for nature conservation (Prach et al. 2011, Řehounková et al. 2011) and where primary succession runs, which is a rare situation in contemporary European landscapes. In general, studies on succession on spoil heaps may substantially contribute to the theory of succession (Walker and del Moral 2003) in addition to their practical implications in restoring the sites.