Vegetation of reclaimed and spontaneously vegetated Zn-Pb mine wastes in Southern Poland.

Extraction of minerals by means of opencast mining destroys the land surface. Mining work creates huge opencasts and a large amount of waste, mainly rock waste, and leaves a bare surface. The development of vegetation is as a rule difficult and protracted in these areas, due to the unfavorable physical and chemical properties of the waste, as well as the limited pool of appropriate species which could colonize them [1]. Nevertheless, vegetation colonizes these areas and often forms distinctive and valuable communities [2]. Natural development of vegetation is unfortunately a rare phenomenon in post-mining areas in Poland because the enterprise that caused the degradation of the land is obliged by law to reclaim it. As a rule, the aim of reclamation work is to introduce any plant cover that can protect the waste against surface erosion and can accelerate the development of soil. The oldest traditional way of reclaiming areas degraded by human activity is to plant trees and shrubs. Species adapted to the habitat conditions of a given area are used only rarely. The planted species are usually birch, larch and pine, which are relatively resistant to drought and to nutrient scarcity. This mode of reclamation produces large areas of single species woodlands with low biological diversity. Polish J. of Environ. Stud. Vol. 18, No. 4 (2009), 717-733

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