American Chestnut's Role in the Ecological Restoration of Coal-Mined Landscapes

Abstract This review article analyzes the importance of assessing the success of ecological restoration by using four indicators: assemblage of the plant and animal communities; enzyme activity; litter accumulation and decomposition; and the improvement of soil quality. These indicators can be used alone or in combinations. Even though the Society for Ecological Restoration International provided a primer containing nine attributes to use as standards for measuring ecological restoration, only three of these attributes could be easily applied due to their low costs and low time requirements. These three attributes include: diversity, vegetation structure, and ecological processes. This review article emphasizes that the criteria for the selection of the indicator species should be based upon: habitat types, abundance of species, ease of measuring, quantifying and interpreting the results, gradual enhancement with time and cost‐effectiveness, sensitivity, variability of response, size, residential status, and requirements of the area. Principal component analysis was applied to calculate the reclaimed mine soil quality index (RMSQI) and the forest soil quality index (FSQI) and the RMSQI value was compared with FSQI (optimum index value of reference ecosystem) to evaluate the restoration success. Available phosphorus, exchangeable magnesium, organic carbon, clay content, field moisture, available nitrogen, electrical conductivity, and pH are identified as the most influential parameters that regulate the health of reclaimed mine soil. Exchangeable calcium, magnesium, cation exchange capacity, sand, silt, clay content, field moisture, available phosphorus, and pH are the controlling properties for forest soil. The observed values of the above‐stated soil indicator properties were converted into a unitless score (0–1.00) and integrated into index calculations (RMSQI and FSQI). The contribution of each soil indicator properties on the calculated index was analyzed, which provides insight into the reason for the measured index. A higher RMSQI indicates better ecological restoration success. The calculated RMSQI was found to be 0.473 in the reclaimed dump, which is 6% lower than the reference ecosystem.

Restoration Ecology

Soil Quality

Indicator value

Ecological indicator

Cation-exchange capacity

Silt

10.1002/tqem.21641

Cite

Citations (25)

Amphibian habitat creation on postindustrial landscapes: a case study in a reclaimed coal strip-mine area

Canadian Journal of Zoology (2016)

Rochelle M. Stiles Jonathan W. Swan Jaimie L. Klemish Michael J. Lannoo

Although habitat loss is a major driver of amphibian and reptile declines globally, a subset of postindustrial landscapes, reclaimed and restored, are creating habitat for these animals in the United States. In southwestern Indiana, along the southeastern edge of the Illinois Coal Basin, post-SMCRA (Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977) grassland restorations are recreating prairies in a region where they occurred naturally as openings (pockets) in deciduous forest, but were destroyed by agricultural activities following Euro-American settlement. Furthermore, it is likely, given the speed of recolonization by 34 species of amphibians and reptiles (9 frog, 5 salamander, 13 snake, 5 turtle, and 2 lizard species), that the grasslands associated with railroad spur-line right-of-ways act as corridors to facilitate movement of these species into these relatively large sites. We suggest that reclaimed, restored, and properly managed landscapes can support reproducing populations of amphibians and reptiles, including species in decline across other portions of their range.

10.1139/cjz-2015-0163

Cite

Citations (7)

The Soundscape of Appalachian Mountaintop Grasslands: Assessing the Ecological Potential of Coal Mined Lands

Anne C. Axel

Soundscape

Appalachia

Source

Cite

Citations (0)