Changes in Soil Physical and Chemical Properties following Surface Mining and Reclamation

Core Ideas Mining and reclamation caused massive disturbance to soil properties. Establishment of artificial vegetation had a better effectiveness than natural recovery in the restoration of mine lands. Vegetation planting clearly improved the soil BD, SI, WSAs, SRI, and SOC of mine soils, but mainly in the surface (0‐15 cm) layer. The effect of soil property improvement was closely related to the vegetation types and planting grass should be encouraged. In this study, soil physical and chemical properties, that is, texture, bulk density (BD), structural stability index (SI), water‐stable aggregates (WSAs), mean weight diameter (MWD), steady‐state infiltration rate (SIR) and organic carbon content (SOC) were measured in reclaimed mine sites (RMSs), including the revegetated sites (RVSs; arbors [A], bushes [B], arbor‐bush mixtures [AB], and grasslands [G]) and natural recovery site (NRS), and in undisturbed native sites (UNSs). The objectives were to assess the changes in these properties of RMSs compared with UNSs and evaluate the effects of reclamation land uses on these properties. Sand content, SI, >0.25‐mm WSAs, MWD, SOC were lower and BD was higher in RMSs than in UNSs, especially in the 15‐ to 30‐cm depth. The surface BD, >0.25‐mm WSAs, MWD in RVSs were lower by 13.6, 31.9, 48.5%, and SOC was higher by 120.4% than that in NRS. The SIR in RVSs was higher by 267.1% than that in NRS. For RVSs, the surface SOC in A stands (3.81 g kg −1 ) was lower than that in B (5.03 g kg −1 ), AB (5.46 g kg −1 ), and G stands (6.35 g kg −1 ). However, the BD (1.35 g cm −3 ), >0.25‐mm WSAs (54.9%) and MWD (2.2 mm) in A stands were higher than that in others. The soil properties among B, AB, and G stands did not differ except for the SOC and soil aggregates. In summary, B, AB, and G can be recommended as reclamation land use in RMSs, but planting grasses should be encouraged considering the economic cost.