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Effect of vegetation blanket cover with different materials on soil microbial community structure of opencast coal mines in arid areas

  • Ziyin Wang
    ,
  • Huili Liu
    ,
  • James Crabbe
    ,
  • Xiaoyu Zhao
    ,
  • Bingru Liu
  • North Minzu University
    ,
  • University of Oxford
    ,
  • Shanxi University
Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

Vegetation blanket restoration of mine soils provides a diverse environment for soil microbes, but the effects of vegetation blanket cover on soil physicochemical properties, microbial structure, and diversity are not well understood, particularly in arid areas. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to examine the microbial community at Dafeng Mine, the Helan Mountains, Ningxia, China. Soil microbial communities were analyzed with four different materials: 100% straw, 50% straw–50% coconut, and 100% coconut vegetation blanket types, and a bare ground control (CK). The results showed that the contents of soil total nitrogen (TN), available potassium (AP), urease, and catalase were significantly increased in different types of vegetation blankets. High-throughput sequencing showed that the straw vegetation blanket increased bacterial diversity, while the coconut vegetation blanket increased fungal diversity. The main influencing factors of the dominant bacterial phylum were total nitrogen, catalase, urease, protease, soil water content (WC), soil organic carbon (SOC), and electrical conductivity (EC). The main influencing factor of the dominant fungal phylum was soil water content. These results show that compared with straw vegetation blankets, coconut, and straw–coconut vegetation blanket mulches are more likely to improve soil physicochemical properties, increase the diversity and abundance of soil microorganisms and improve the structural composition of the community, thus improving the soil environment in dryland mining areas. However, further research is needed as to which is the more significant environmental improvement, coconut or straw–coconut vegetation blankets.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 5835-5848 (14 pages)

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Land Degradation and Development (Volume 34, Issue 18)

Publication milestones

  • Accepted/In press - 26/07/2023
  • Published - 04/09/2023

Publication status

Published - 04/09/2023

ISSN

1085-3278

Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/626113
  • Scopus: 85169685756

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