Features of soil renaturation: an application for

ecological rehabilitation of disturbed lands

Fedor Lisetskii

Professor of Mining and Natural Resource Management, Belgorod State National Research University,

Belgorod, Russian Federation Russia

ABSTRACT

Land reclamation is disproportionate of areas that are diverted to mining, despite the requirements of environmental

legislation. This creates an arena for the process of mine dumps overgrowth, which is similar to the renaturation aban-

doned sites. In a variety of the environmental conditions and with a wide amplitude of changes in factors, young eco-

systems on the mine dumps and abandoned sites (after 30-70 years) form a spectrum of development pathways, which is

characteristic of the adaptive self-organization of complex natural systems. Studying the various environmental resto-

ration pathways of disturbed lands gives an understanding of the renaturation stages and rates, which allows moving to

a controlled technology of plant and soil cover reproduction. The organic carbon accumulation values comparison in a

comparable soil thickness showed that the ef ciency of soil restoration in the forest-steppe with the postindustrial mine

dumps renaturation compared to the restoration of the abandoned sites in the steppe zone were twice as high. This is due

to the higher bioclimatic potential of the renaturation conditions; in particular, the sum of annual precipitation in the

forest-steppe is more by 275 mm than in the steppe. However, the quantitative and qualitative indicators of pedogenesis

(morphological structure, accumulation of organic carbon) show themselves similar to various bioclimatic conditions

both in the renaturation of post technogenic and in the lands’ ordinary mechanical disturbances, which would help to

implement the universal technologies for the controlled renaturation of the disturbed lands. The established rates for the

environmental rehabilitation of degraded land will be useful in implementing an irrecoverable conservation scenario

where the most necessary types of ecosystems and aesthetic rehabilitation badlands can be formed.

KEY WORDS: MINE DUMPS, ABANDONED SITES, LAND RECLAMATION, ENVIRONMENTAL RECLAMATION, SOIL RESTORATION

541

Ecological

Communication

Biosci. Biotech. Res. Comm. 11(4): 541-547 (2018)

ARTICLE INFORMATION:

Corresponding Authors: liset@bsu.edu.ru

Received 1

Oct, 2018

Accepted after revision 12

Dec, 2018

BBRC Print ISSN: 0974-6455

Online ISSN: 2321-4007 CODEN: USA BBRCBA

Thomson Reuters ISI ESC / Clarivate Analytics USA

Mono of Clarivate Analytics and Crossref Indexed

Journal Mono of CR

NAAS Journal Score 2018: 4.31 SJIF 2017: 4.196

Online Contents Available at: http//www.bbrc.in/

DOI: 10.21786/bbrc/11.4/2

Fedor Lisetskii

542 FEATURES OF SOIL RENATURATION: AN APPLICATION FOR ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED LANDS BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

INTRODUCTION

The post-technogenic landscapes formation occurs under

the combined in uence of both natural and technologi-

cal factors. The mining technology is connected with the

formation of a technogenic relief, placement and rock-

to-earth ratio. Natural factors include the geographical

location of the mine excavations area, their background

landscape-ecological surroundings, habitats-sources

availability and the age of technogenic complexes. Vio-

lated reclamation lands during the development of the

mineral deposit and in connection with the industrial

facilities construction, include the technical stage of the

works. This stage creates a geomorphological and litho-

genic basis for the formation of post-technogenic land-

scapes. At the same time, land survey work is usually

carried out to smooth out the open pit sides, to create ter-

races on slopes at the mine dumps, planning recultivated

surfaces for antierosion purposes, chemical reclamation

(if necessary) of toxic rocks, or to apply a high-veloc-

ity layer from a potentially fertile rock. In the opera-

tion of ore mining and processing facilities, wastes are

moved to tailing dumps, for which prevention activities

or reduction of damage from environmental contamina-

tion are very important .The environmental reclamation

of a mine dumps can be de ned as the general process

of repairing disturbed, damaged, degraded, or destroyed

land with respect to its former or other productive uses,

(Favas, 2017; Rafkatovich and Mironova, 2018).

The  nal part of the technical stage of reclamation –

moving the fertile soil layer out of the temporary mine

dumps and applying it to the prepared surface – can be

replaced with land renaturation, which was used, for

example, in land reclamation for forestry use. Other meth-

ods of biological reclamation are now practiced plant

growing (cultivation of agricultural crops); agromelio-

ration (special methods of soil treatment); landscaping;

agroforestry (protective forest belts); phytoreclamation

(cultivation or maintenance of natural plant communi-

ties); bioremediation. The environmental reclamation is

a broad concept encompassing all the other terms com-

monly referred to (restoration, rehabilitation, replace-

ment, remediation, mitigation), used alone or combined

(Gilland and McCarthy, 2014; Ngugi et al., 2015; Zenkov,

2016; Zamotaev et al., 2017; Favas, 2017).

Lands, where the methods of the biological reclama-

tion are not involved and the process of mine dumps

overgrowth is under way, can be under the controlled

process of reproduction of plant and soil cover. The

fact is that the rate of soil formations in overgrowth is

small: only after 10 (12) years and more on the destroyed

lands do the differentiation of plant species composition

becomes dominant and a stable plant cover with lay-

ers and seasonal dynamics is formed (Golovanov et al.,

2009). If the surrounding ecosystems have a low regen-

eration potential, which is typical for internal areas of

the technogenic landscapes, then the targeted construc-

tion of the ecosystem renaturation is the most rational

way. The soil development depends on the hydrothermal

and geochemical processes that cause differentiation of

the landscape conditions both in the natural setting and

on arti cial structures (Lisetskii et al., 2016). Geochemical

features of the technogenic substrates are determined by a

more complex mineralogical composition (Alekseev et al.,

2008) and high content of heavy metals (Akbari, 2016).

Formation of soil cover has a subordinate charac-

ter with respect to the development of phytocenoses,

although it proceeds syngenetically (Goleusov and Liset-

skii, 2008). Technologies of renaturation should be based

on observing the sequence of the main stages of succes-

sion of phytocenoses: pioneer groupings (1-3 years) –

simple groupings (3-8 years) – complex groupings (8-15

years). In the case of favourable edaphic and soil-form-

ing properties of the substrate, accelerated renaturation

scenarios are possible: the community’s formation from

“climax” plants species (Goleusov, 2003; Tokhtar and

Martynova, 2015).

The bioclimatic potential study of the territory and

the renaturation’s natural mechanisms potential make it

possible to outline effective optimal rehabilitation meth-

ods of disturbed lands. This study aims to assess the soil

renaturation results of the destroyed lands during their

formation by different types of anthropogenic transfor-

mation from the lithogenic basis under contrasting bio-

climatic conditions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study area: The study was carried out at two test sites:

in the forest-steppe (Belgorod Oblast, career in the

extraction of iron ore) and steppe (Crimean Peninsula,

 at part). The area of Belgorod Oblast is relatively small

(27.1 thousand km

), but over 200 kinds of useful min-

erals have been identi ed in this territory. The Kursk

Magnetic Anomaly (KMA) is a large iron-ore province

with a total area of 125 thousand km

that extends from

south-east to north-west at 625 km and a width of up

to 250 km (Kornilov et al., 2014; Petin and Ignatenko,

2016). The territory of Belgorod Oblast includes 14 of 18

explored iron-ore mineral deposits of the KMA basin.

The balance iron ore reserves in the Belgorod Oblast

reach 51.32 bn t (78% of all KMA reserves or 51.2%

of the reserves of Russia), and in addition the region

contains 97.4 % All-Russian stocks of rich ores (with Fe

content 53-62%) (Petin and Ignatenko, 2016).

In addition, Belgorod Oblast has 328 quarries of com-

mon minerals (chalk, clay, sand) on an area of about

1.5 thousand hectares. Among the study subjects in the

Fedor Lisetskii

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS FEATURES OF SOIL RENATURATION: AN APPLICATION FOR ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED LANDS 543

KMA region, there are mine dumps of various types:

excavating, car dumps, hydro dumps, where was not

carried out reclamation by applying a fertile soil layer.

The KMA region is located in the forest-steppe, where

the climate is moderately continental with an average

annual temperature of 5.4 °C, and an annual precipita-

tion of 616 mm.

The objects of steppe region study were the aban-

doned settlements territories and earth mounds of World

War II in the so-called belligerent landscapes. The steppe

study area is located 700 km south-west of KMA and

here the climate is very arid with mild winter, and the

average annual temperature is higher by 4.6 °C and an

annual precipitation is less by 275 mm.

Data used: The empirical basis of the study rests on the

previously created databases in MS Access format, which

contain author’s pedochronological data (morphology,

properties) in forest-steppe and steppe soils (numbers of

security documents RU2010620190 and RU2016621001,

respectively). The computer program, which is a data-

base management system (DBMS) of the different-aged

soils, allowed selecting data with comparable history.

The objects of study in 2003-2016 were young different-

aged soils (30-70 years old) and their parent rocks in the

Belgorod region (KMA) and Steppe Crimea. If in the KMA

forest-steppe area the study subjects are mining dumps

that for 32-35 years have passed restoration, then in the

steppe region, these landscapes age 68-73 years, which

are formed on the destroyed lands as a result of the ter-

mination of human activity lands (abandoned sites, hills

of ash, military trenches). Survey targets comparison in

two regions reveals the role of bioclimatic conditions

and the signi cant differences in the chemical composi-

tion of parent rocks.

Methods: The rate of humus horizon formation (accu-

mulative (A) and transitional (AB)) is taken as a rela-

tive indicator of soil formation effectiveness. The choice

of an adequate mathematical model was based on the

assumption that the model should re ect the rate of

pedogenesis gradual deceleration, corresponding to the

established organic matter equilibrium in the maximum

concentration zone of soil biota in the renaturation hori-

zon. Therefore, we chose the group of S-shaped growth

models and in particular, a Gompertz function. Licensed

software STATISTICA 10.0 was used for the modelling

of the changes in the thickness of humus horizon (sum

of A and AB, if it is formed). Chemical analyses for soil

horizons A and AB included the following standard pro-

cedures: the content of CO

in carbonates measured by

acidometry, bulk nitrogen content (N) as determined by

Kjeldahl’s procedure, and pH

H2O

The determination of Corg in the soil was performed

by oxidation of the organic substance with a solution

in sulfuric acid until the formation of carbon

dioxide. The quality of the organic substance can be

estimated based on the atomic ratio of C:N, which char-

acterizes the degree of nitrogen enrichment of humus:

if C:N < 5, then very high, if C:N < 14, then very low.

Most of the humus horizons of the zonal-genetic row

have a high and medium degree of enrichment of humus

with nitrogen at C:N ratio of about 5-8 and 8-10, respec-

tively. If using the index Corg for every 10 mm of soil

thickness (C/10 mm), then the data is comparable in the

analysis of individual objects. This is due to the fact

that after the initial accumulation of soil organic matter

in horizon A with the highest concentration of roots,

the humus is moved down the pro le as the pedogen-

esis time increases. Concentration of 22 macroelements

and trace elements within the soils were determined

by technique of measuring metals mass fraction and

oxides in powder samples using the method of X-ray

 uorescence analysis on the spectrometer (Spectroscan

Max-GV). With weathering of iron-containing miner-

als, amorphous iron compounds are formed, which were

extracted by Tamm’s reagent (oxalate buffer solution

*2H

O+(NH

)

O) with pH=3). Soil colours

(dry and moist) were described using the Munsell color

system (Munsell, 1994).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Renaturation of the soil-plant cover

Land reclamation involves the application of a fertile

soil layer on a post-technogenic surface. However, when

applying the layer of minimum thickness (15 cm), the

payback period (upon the return of the used land to

arable land) with the increasing delivery distance using

scrapers from 300 to 1000 m will increase from 3 to 7

years. The land reclamation in the KMA is not carried

out in due scope due to the lack of  nancial resources

and insuf cient technical equipment of mining compa-

nies. The annual increase in the area of destroyed land is

comparable to the area of land, where reclamation was

carried out. Therefore, Belgorod Oblast needs more than

100 years to fully reclamation of all disturbed lands, if

the same reclamation rates continue in the future. The

reclamation biological stage economic costs during for-

mation of the post-technogenic landscape can be sig-

ni cantly reduced by controlling the restoration process.

Therefore, it is necessary to use the results of empiri-

cal studies that will allow selecting the most effective

restoration trajectories and self-sustaining native eco-

system restoration. The soil-plant cover renaturation is a

complex ensemble of natural reproduction processes of

the biotic and abiotic geosystems components and the

anthropogenic geosystem natural evolution, in which

Fedor Lisetskii

544 FEATURES OF SOIL RENATURATION: AN APPLICATION FOR ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED LANDS BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

the economic activity was completed. A characteristic

feature of technogenic geosystems is the high heteroge-

neity of their lithological base made of rocks that were

moved in mine dump using the dry method or in the

slurry form in the hydraulic  lling process. And it is

important to point out that these rocks belong to differ-

ent geological formations and are often not parent rock

for soil cover of the background landscapes.

In polycomponent technogenic mixtures, their envi-

ronmental favourableness for renaturation is determined

by the rocks ratio and, as a result of their mixing; the

emergent properties of technogenic substrates appear.

The morphology of the newly formed soil pro les of the

technogenic landscapes strongly depends on the par-

ent rock type. The soil pro le is best formed in loamy

and sandy-loamy rocks, soils on sands, clays, chalk

and dense crystalline rocks are less developed. The bio-

geochemical cycle plays a determining role in the soil

reproduction, including the process of complexes with

organic residues, their transformation, mineralization,

and humi cation (Lisetskii, 2012). Loamy soils better  x

the organic matter.

With renaturation, aggregation processes are under-

way and the structure provides optimal water-air and

microbiological regimes and favourable conditions for

nutrient entry into the plants, improves anti-erosive

soil stability in dif cult terrain conditions (Bulygin and

Lisetskiy, 1992). Biocenoses regeneration in ecotopes

with a favourable substrate for the settlement of higher

plants occurs at an accelerated rate, which determines

the most active transformation of the mineral part

within the rhizosphere area, where maximum organic

matter accumulation is observed. Therefore, the maxi-

mum humus horizon formation rate (1.5-2 mm yr

-1

) was

noted with a soil aged of about 30 years.

Soil restoration on the mine dumps

In the forest-steppe, the results of renaturation postin-

dustrial mine dump after 32-35 years (Table 1) are char-

acterized by the following indicators of pedogenesis: the

thickness of humus horizon is 43.3 ± 2.9 mm, the content

of humus reaches 3.42 ± 0.29%, N = 0.26 ± 0.02%. These

fertility indicators are formed under conditions when the

content of Fe is 1.50 ± 0.30%, the soil solutions have a

medium alkaline reaction (pH

H2O

= 8.24 ± 0.07), which is

due to the carbonate content (CO

= 3.69 ± 0.73%).

With renaturation postindustrial mine dumps, the

processes of humus horizon formation and humus syn-

chronously accumulates in the  rst three-four decades

as a whole. Soils reproduction in technogenic landscapes

under conditions of mine dumps overgrowth with over-

burden rocks occurs under rather extreme conditions;

however, in most cases by the age of 30-40 years’ young

soils have a well-de ned morphological pro le.

Table 1: Basic indicators of primary pedogenesis in renaturation postindustrial mine dumps in forest-steppe conditions

Object

(FS)

Age (t) PR

, Number

species

Horizon H, mm

Munsell color

moist dry

, % Fe, % Corg C:N

Vh, mm

-1

Vc, %

-1

C/10

mm, %

35 LM PE 15 A 16±0.3 10YR3/2 10YR4/2 4.50 0.31 3.07 7

AB 29±1 10YR3/3 10YR4.5/2 4.27 0.23 1.91 8 0.83 0.07 0.88

LL + RF

HG 43 A 23±1 10YR3/2 10YR3/3 2.00 0.76 3.07 11

AB 51±1 10YR2/2 10YR3/2 2.10 0.69 2.32 10 1.55 0.08 0.52

7 35 RF CM 26 A+AB 52±2 10YR2.5/2 10YR4/3 3.52 0.56 1.92 13 1.49 0.05 0.37

8 35 RF + LM CE 26 A 35±1 10YR3/1.5 10YR3/2 4.38 0.42 2.24 13

AB 74±1 10YR3/3 10YR3/2 3.94 0.50 1.26 7 2.11 0.05 0.23

9 34 RF W+G 15 A+AB 31±0.4 7.5YR3/3 5YR4/3 1.58 3.70 1.94 8 0.91 0.06 0.63

34 RF + LL C+MA 6 A 27±1 10YR2.5/2 10YR3/3 1.08 2.10 2.98 12

AB 81±2 10YR2.5/2 10YR4/3 0.81 2.65 2.40 6 2.38 0.08 0.46

11 32 Sca PA 16 A+AB 56±2 2.5YR6/3 2.5Y7/2 12.08 0.05 2.27 81 1.75 0.07 0.41

Note:

Parent Rocks: LM, Loam Medium; LL, Light Loam; RF, Rock (Ferruginous); Sca, Carbonate Sand.

Vegetation Communities: PE, Poa-Euphorbia community; HG, Heterogeneous group

(43 species of different coenotypes); CM, Calamagrostis-Medicago association; CE, Calamagrostis-Elytrigia community; W+G, Woody vegetation (5 species) and a rare grassy tier; C+MA, Cornus

sangguinea and Medicago-Achillea community; PA, Poa-Artemisia grouping.

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS FEATURES OF SOIL RENATURATION: AN APPLICATION FOR ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED LANDS 545

Fedor Lisetskii

The greatest development among soil genetic hori-

zons is obtained by humus – accumulative (A) and tran-

sitional (AB or AC (in the early stages)) horizons. The

dependence of the total thickness (A+AB(AC)) of humus

horizon (H (t), mm) on the time (t, years) in the early

stage of pedogenesis in the technogenic landscapes of

the forest-steppe has the form: H (t) = 200 exp (–exp

(0.923-0.025 t)). Using this model, it was found that

the average rate of humus horizon formation of Cher-

nozem-like soils (Vh) in the  rst 35 years is 2.00 mm

-1

.However, in the various substrates and phytocenotic

conditions of the technogenic landscapes, signi cant

differences in Vh (n = 22) from 0.83 to 2.38 mm yr

-1

are noted with a coef cient of 36% variation. During

this same time, the average rate of Corg accumulation

is 1.86 ± 0.15% with a coef cient of 38% variation. As

shown in Table 1, with the exception of soil on sands, all

other soils when achieving an average content of Corg =

2.2% acquire a characteristic soil colour (dry) dark gray-

ish brown (10YR4/2).

The maximum growth rates of the humus horizon

thickness were noted, when rocks (Ferruginous) were

mixed with loams, although the plant cover features were

not a factor of pedogenesis rate differentiation. Never-

theless, the presence of woody vegetation (such as Cor-

nus sangguinea) stimulated both soil growth downwards

and Corg accumulation with a high degree of humus

enrichment with nitrogen. As shown earlier (Goleusov,

2003), in the forest-steppe conditions, there are no sig-

ni cant differences in the pedogenesis ef ciency under

grass and tree vegetation in the early stages of renatura-

tion, but at a later stage, the organic carbon accumula-

tion rate in grassy communities becomes higher.

High Corg accumulation rates do not depend on the

content of carbonates in parent rock and they are not

hindered by the increased content amorphous Fe in

the rocks of mining dumps. The lowest rates of Corg

accumulation were noted on ferruginous rock and more

favourable parent rocks (loam and loamy sand) were a

more signi cant factor pedogenesis, than the diversity

of plant species and type of vegetation. The high degree

of humus enrichment with nitrogen (C:N=5-8) is always

accompanied by high rates of humus horizon (Vh), but

the ratio C:N=8 was also noted in cases where the maxi-

mum values of C/10 mm were recorded.

At the quartzite mine dumps (KMA), vegetation in

the early stages of recovery is very poor, but at the foot

of the slopes where the meadow-steppe vegetation with

ruderal species concentration, 58 species of plants are

noted (Kornilov et al., 2008). At the age of young geo-

systems from 35 to 50 years and beyond, there comes

a stage of sustainable geosystems operation where the

structure and regeneration processes stabilize. The rate

of soil reproduction decreases; the species composition

in a phytocenosis gradually stabilizes; the share of rud-

eral species decreases.

Soil restoration on the abandoned sites

With mechanical destructions of land and the human

activity termination, semi-natural landscapes (post-set-

tlement, forti cation, etc.) were formed with a variety of

conditions on lithology and vegetation composition. In

such conditions (Table 2), with an arid steppe climate,

the average rate of humus horizon formation (Vh) for

the  rst 70 years ranged from 1.1 to 2.3 mm yr

-1

with

a variation coef cient of 28%. During the same time,

the average rate of Corg accumulation was 0.04% yr

-1

with a variation coef cient of 23%, i.e. is identical to

the accumulation of carbon on mine dumps KMA. In this

way, judging by the values of the indicator C/10 mm, the

pedogenesis ef ciency (with respect to the accumulation

of organic substance in a comparable thickness) during

renaturation of the postindustrial mine dumps (0.50%

on 10 mm) compared with the usual mechanical viola-

tions of land in the steppe zone was twice as high.This

is due to the higher bioclimatic potential of renatura-

tion conditions, which was typical for mining facilities

of KMA in the forest-steppe. Consequently, we can note

the higher species diversity and vegetation productivity

during the overgrowth of mine dumps, despite the lesser

age of ecosystems restoration in the forest-steppe com-

pared with the steppe. In comparison with the young

forest-steppe soil, colour is lighter in the steppe soils,

which is mainly determined by the presence of such par-

ent rock as ash.

Table 2 includes only the nine macroelements and

trace elements that belong to the group “plant nutrients”,

and among them there are those that showed a signi -

cant variation (V>20%) among the subjects studied. A

comparison of the soil quality values that were obtained

by calculating the geometric means for nine indicators

(Table 2) showed that the richest soil (in biogeochemical

terms) was formed in seven decades under conditions,

when the parent rock was ash, although the plant cover

was not characterized by maturity and diversity. Scenar-

ios of ecological renaturation pathways are more diverse

under overgrowth conditions of the postindustrial mine

dumps in comparison with the restoration of the aban-

doned sites (settlements and forti cation objects). It can

be assumed that this is facilitated by more favourable

climatic conditions of the forest steppe in comparison

with the steppe. Moreover, the narrower scope of imple-

mented pathways of renaturation of steppe ecosystems

is due to the greater in uence of adjacent ecosystems

due to their territorial proximity. The important role of

habitats-sources for the successions acceleration was

shown in the de nition of the kurgans vital role in

steppe restoration (Deák et al., 2016). In areas where the

546 FEATURES OF SOIL RENATURATION: AN APPLICATION FOR ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED LANDS BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Fedor Lisetskii

Table 2. Features of the chemical composition of soils formed during the  rst 70 years in the conditions of the steppe

zone

Object S1/1 S1/2 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Average

AA T TTBL A –

C C HG GMG MG W W –

T yrs 70 70 70 68 68 73 73 –

Horizon, depth mm A, 0-162 AB,162-280 A, 0-95 A, 0-93 A, 0-122 A, 0-81 A, 0-98 –

Munsell color dry 10YR 6/2 10YR 6/2 10YR 7/3.5 10YR 5/3 10YR 7/3 10YR 6/3.5 10YR 5/2.5 –

Corg % 3.29 2.59 3.46 2.66 2.16 1.98 2.43 2.65

% 1.33 1.39 0.28 0.15 0.21 0.30 0.49 0.59

O % 3.00 3.32 1.84 1.90 1.23 1.10 1.83 2.03

Fe % 2.15 2.08 2.00 3.10 1.62 1.47 1.92 2.05

SiO

% 45.8 44.6 37.7 46.3 20.0 21.6 34.0 35.71

CaO % 16.9 17.7 21.8 6.5 36.0 28.1 16.5 20.51

MgO % 2.5 2.5 2.3 1.3 3.3 2.8 1.9 2.38

Cu ppm 20.8 21.4 24.7 43.1 35.0 38.9 42.1 32.29

Zn ppm 143.8 123.6 72.0 81.6 67.9 59.6 78.1 89.51

Vh mm yr

-1

– 2.31 1.36 1.37 1.79 1.11 1.34 1.55

Vc % yr

-1

0.05 0.05 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.04

C/10 mm % – 0.20 0.36 0.29 0.18 0.24 0.25 0.25

Note:

Parent Rock: BL, Building Layer; A, Ash; T, Ejection Parent Rock (Trenches).

Vegetation: W, Weeds; C, Cer eals; HG, Herb-Grass; GMG, Grassy-

Motley Grass; MG, Motley Grass. Ppm = mg kg

-1

ratio of natural habitats is high, we can expect a fast

recovery of semi-natural habitats (Valkó et al., 2017).

CONCLUSION

The type and geochemistry of parent rock are the deter-

mining factors of pedogenesis and makes the main con-

tribution to the soil properties variation that is close in

age. Young ecosystems, that were formed in a variety

of conditions (relief, lithology, climate, vegetation),

through the environmental factor amplitude of oscil-

lations could, in the self-organization process, enter

one, but a development pathways spectrum, since they

had many degrees of freedom. The range of the envi-

ronmental renaturation ef ciency in the forest-steppe

under the recent pedogenesis conditions in postindus-

trial mine dumps is diagnosed to the greatest extent by

the Corg/10 mm index and Vh is inferior to it. The small

differences (with varying types of rocks and vegetation)

are typical for the average rate of Corg accumulation.

In the steppe zone, the range of values is less than in

the forest-steppe and the manifestations of the processes

that are re ected in indicators C/10 mm and Vh and the

average rate of Corg accumulation is inferior to them.

Thereby, in various bioclimatic conditions, indicators

of the pedogenesis ef ciency on renaturation post-

technogenic and of conventional mechanical disorder

lands manifest themselves in a similar way. This allows

using the comprehensive technology of controlled rena-

turation of the disturbed lands. We attribute this type of

renaturation to irrecoverable conservation, whose goal

is to form the most “scarce” ecosystems with the selec-

tion of tolerant species, the creation of natural reserves

and the badlands aesthetic rehabilitation. It is necessary

to provide system solutions, since environmental rena-

turation in post mining sites includes stabilization of the

relief, primary and recent pedogenesis, self-puri cation

of natural environments (restoration of the geochemi-

cal balance), primary and regenerative biota successions

(revitalization of anthropogenic surfaces), intercompo-

nent geosystem interactions restoration.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The work was done in the framework of the implementa-

tion of the base part of the state assignment of the Min-

istry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

for the Belgorod State National Research University on

2017-2019 years (project No. 5.4711.2017/6.7).

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