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Development of soil physical parameters on initial landforms - An example from a post-mining recultuivation site in Lusatia, East Germany

  • Recultivation efforts in mining areas attempt to regenerate soils and landscapes for various land use options and create initial conditions which are beneficial for the development of the future ecosystems. On very young landforms physical and chemical properties of soils play a major role for the further evolution of the developing ecosystem as well as the landforms itself. Less is known about the very first alterations of physical parameters in accordance to different land uses and recultivation practices. Our study deals with the agricultural recultivation of post lignite mining areas in Lusatia, East Germany. The sandy substrate used for recultivation stems from depths of several meters and is therefore free of recent soil organic matter. The substrate itself is unstructured. After it has been excavated and transported on conveyor belts to the recultivation site, it is piled up to dams of a height of 1-4 m and levelled off with heavy crawlers. During these processes the substrate is subjected to strong mechanical stresses. ThisRecultivation efforts in mining areas attempt to regenerate soils and landscapes for various land use options and create initial conditions which are beneficial for the development of the future ecosystems. On very young landforms physical and chemical properties of soils play a major role for the further evolution of the developing ecosystem as well as the landforms itself. Less is known about the very first alterations of physical parameters in accordance to different land uses and recultivation practices. Our study deals with the agricultural recultivation of post lignite mining areas in Lusatia, East Germany. The sandy substrate used for recultivation stems from depths of several meters and is therefore free of recent soil organic matter. The substrate itself is unstructured. After it has been excavated and transported on conveyor belts to the recultivation site, it is piled up to dams of a height of 1-4 m and levelled off with heavy crawlers. During these processes the substrate is subjected to strong mechanical stresses. This practice induces compaction which causes decreasing yields of agricultural crops to a certain extent. In this context we are investigating the effect of different organic soil additives in combination with different recultivation crop rotations on the development of soil structure for improved agricultural land use. Our experimental site has recently been heaped up and levelled off. On the 25 experimental sub areas 2175 undisturbed soil samples were taken out of three soil depths to characterize initial physical properties before any recultivation measures have been applied,. We present laboratory results of this status-quo sampling. The results indicate that the site is very heterogeneous in terms of mechanical stability, bulk density, total pore volume, saturated hydraulic conductivity and air permeability. Moreover, our results show that bulk density is not an appropriate parameter to derive soil functions, e.g. permeability or stability. Additionally we found that even in areas of bulk densities > 1.8 g/cm3 and with an inclination < 2 % impressive run-off and gully erosion developed during heavy rainfall events. We conclude that initial processes altering soil physical parameters play a major role for the landform evolution within the first 12 months after dumping. Further studies should reveal the mid-term impact of organic additives on the soils after 7 yrs.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author: Julia Krümmelbein, Thomas RaabORCiDGND, Oliver BensGND, Reinhard F. HüttlGND
Title of the source (English):AGU Fall Meeting Suppl.
Document Type:Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Year of publication:2009
First Page:EP31B-0593
Series ; volume number:Eos transactions, AGU ; 90,52
Faculty/Chair:Fakultät 2 Umwelt und Naturwissenschaften / FG Bodenschutz und Rekultivierung
Institution name at the time of publication:Fakultät für Umweltwissenschaften und Verfahrenstechnik (eBTU) / LS Bodenschutz und Rekultivierung
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