Year: 1977
Type: report
Abstract: The experiments completed to date have been designed to characterize the germination, survival, growth, vigor and early success of various grass species growing on layered material consisting of acidic strip mine spoil or acidic mine refuse (gob) covered by topsoil as compared to topsoil, spoil or gob alone. Of particular interest in these studies is the response of the roots, both in biomass production and gross morphology, upon encountering and penetrating the interface between the topsoil and spoil/gob material. Over ten grass species and four legumes, consisting of both native and introduced species, have been grown as monocultures under controlled environment conditions. We found that a topsoil layer was essential for satisfactory root growth into unamended spoil (pH > 4.0) for all grasses tested, but the amount of root biomass in the spoil (bottom) half of the pot was variable depending on the species, and was usually less than the root biomass in the topsoil half. Differences in root morphology and root placement in the spoil half of the pots were observed for most species. However, even with a topsoil layer, root penetration into unamended gob below pH 3.0 did not occur. When the gob was amended with fertilizer and agricultural lime so that the pH approx. = to 6, satisfactory growth occured in the amended gob covered by topsoil and in amended gob alone. Data collected to date indicate that, in many cases, past revegetation recommendations based on results of experiments on amended spoil alone cannot be extrapolated to the topsoil over spoil or gob condition and will have to be revised.
DOI: 10.2172/6423079
Language: English
Subfield: Forestry
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W33855496