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Soil amendments improve vegetation establishment and evapotranspiration on store and release mine cover systems

British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium; University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

Design and construction of mine cover systems in cold regions presents challenges due to harsh climates and limited material availability. Balancing soil moisture requirements for vegetation establishment while limiting water ingress into mine rock is particularly difficult. We evaluated a surface amendment from Profile Products LLC, which combines biotic soil technology with a flexible, erosion-resistant growth medium, when applied to a set of simulated mine cover systems built from low organic content clay-loam soil from a Canadian mine site. The study assessed the amendment's impact on vegetation establishment and ecohydrological functions, including infiltration, net percolation , and evapotranspiration (ET). Four covers were constructed at the Multi-Purpose Soil Testing (MOST) Facility, University of Saskatchewan: two with the amendment and two without, all seeded with native herbaceous vegetation from northern Ontario. Controlled experiments spanned three growing seasons, each lasting four months, simulating a humid-continental (Dfa/Dfb) climate with 365 mm of precipitation per season and temperatures between 17.5 and 25.9 °C. Results indicated that the amended covers achieved higher vegetation establishment rates, greater canopy coverage, and greater total aboveground biomass production compared to the controls. During the crucial first establishment season, canopy coverage on amended covers was 34 – 48% higher. Over three seasons, control cover canopy coverage did not attain levels observed on the amended covers. Total aboveground biomass production was 2,404 – 2,676 kg/Ha higher on the amended covers. Owing to higher vegetation density the amended covers had higher rates of ET (21 – 136 mm more / season), and accordingly, also had 11 – 13 % less percolation into the underlying mine rock. Results suggest that these soil amendments could be a useful way to rapidly stabilize slopes, improve ET rates, and limit percolation through improved growing conditions on mined land cover systems composed of poor-quality materials.

Conference Paper

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0447212

Non UBC

Other

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