Phytomass of plant communities at the dumps of opencast coal mines in the south of Central Siberia

Abstract

The paper presents the evaluation of the stock and structure of plant communities formed in the dumps of the Borodino brown coal pit (the eastern part of the Kansk-Achinskcoal basin). A comparison of different age dumps reclaimed with top soil (TS), planned dumps and slopes. The observations cover the period from 2007 to 2009 and 2013. Almost immediately after its creation, on the surface dumps with TS a solid grassy vegetation formed, which was characterized by high productivity. Over the next two decades, a biomass reserve decreased more than 2 times. The major portion of the biomass of 7 and 31–year–old community is concentrated in the 0–10 cm layer. The plant communities amount to the original level of stocks and the structure of the biomass of both aboveground and underground are as no earlier than in 25–30 years. Forest plantations making to force the accumulation of biomass of young biogeocenosis formed on poor substrate (litostratah). The stock biomass of pine man–made stands on 30 % less than in the grass lands to growing on the dumps with TS. Slopes of reclaimed dumps were slowly overgrown and emerging communities were characterized by a low cover and productivity. The major portion of biomass was located above ground. Significant seasonal variations in quantities of above–ground phytomass of plant communities of old dumps, indicating their«immaturity»in spite of thethirty years of the formation of vegetation.

Keywords

• productivity
• structure of phytomas stock
• dumps
• reclamation
• revegetation
• recultivation
• Kansk-Achinsk coal basin