Agricultural populations of Festuca pratensis (Poaceae) on the coal mining spoils in the forest-steppe of the Kuznetsk Basin, Russia

Abstract

The study of meadow fescue agropopulations was conducted in the agricultural phytocoenoses, established on the leveled coal mining spoils in the forest-steppe zone of the Kuznetsk Basin mining region in Russia. In agrophytocoenoses the fescue is not a dominant species, as in the natural meadows of herbs and fescue, which occupied the area prior to spoiling. However, the presence of the meadow fescue in the newly established plant communities resulted in increasing their biological diversity and improving the forage quality. The species was shown to sustain in agricultural communities on the coal mining spoils for more than 25 years, whereas when sown on the zonal soils it maintains it presence for 4-6 years. The ontogenetic groups of the plant in all communities were found to be dominated by virginile, young and mid-aged generative specimen. By the 25th year of agricultural phytocoenoses development the vitality of the agropopulations decreased on the coal mining spoils, composed of both Quaternary and Permian sediments. The study showed for the first time that meadow fescue is a species with good potential to restore vegetation cover in the areas disturbed by the open coal mining.