Vegetation Restoration On Coal Waste Piles Of Mingshan Mountain, Meizhou

There is a history of over 50 years for exploitation in Mingshan Coalmine. Meizhou. The coal piles formed during the process of exploitation have not only occupied much land, destroyed natural landscape, but caused water and soil erosion and ecological degradation as well. In this study, we selected waste coal pile in Mingshan as testing area. We tried to improve the physical and chemical character through adding pioneer plants and native plants, and accelerate the process of vegetation succession and ecological re-establishment. We also investigated growth patterns of plant population, optimal species, reasonable disposition and structure for plant population in order to provide the theoretic and practical basis for vegetation recovery and ecological re-establishment in Meizhou and other areas in South China.This study based on theory of restoration ecology, plant taxonomy and environmental engineering. We selected tolerant plants through field investigation, spot survey, soil chemical analysis, pot experiment, and calculating summed dominance ratio and plant diversity, and then put forward the re-establishment system and pattern in the aspect of pioneer vegetation construction and soil improvement.The results shown that there were 64 species of natural colonized plants on the wasteland, which are subordinate to 30 families and 59 genera. The main families are Gramineae (10 species), Compositae (7 species), Leguminosae (5 species). Among all the colonized plants, there are 29 annual and biennial herbs, 13 perennial herbs, 4 lianas and 18 woody plants. Wind-spread seeds and fruits are main resource of propagula in the wasteland. There formed some relatively steady mono-species patches and micro-communities in the wasteland. These micro-communities have simple composition and structure and low species diversity. Miscanthus floridulus, Crotalaria mucronaia and Artemisia argyi could colonize successfully and were dominant species in the vegetation that can be used as firstly selected plants for vegetation recovery in the coalmine wasteland.There is community succession tendency from grass to mixed grass-shrub andthen to shrub community, and species richness and diversity index arise with this succession. The slope direction and degree of wasteland are important factors affecting plant colonization. The plants that are tolerant of barrenness and distribute widely, e.g. Miscamthus floridulus, Arundo donaxl, Artemisia argyi, Comnyza Canadensis, Crotalaris mucronata, and Kummerowia striata, are pioneer plants for vegetation recovery in coal piles. They have high summed dominance ratio and take crucial action on vegetation recovery and community succession. Many pioneer plants including annual and perennial herbs, e.g. Imperata cylindrical, Comnyza Canadensis, and Crotalaris mucronata colonize successfully to provide conditions for colonization of shrubs, e.g. Buddleja asiatica.