Improving revegetation success: Evaluation of several soil treatments

摘要

The current Hanford practice for stabilizing contaminated soil sites and retired burial grounds involves placing clean soil over the surface, followed by revegetation. This procedure has resulted in the establishment of a viable plant cover at a number of locations. In other cases, however, these efforts have failed to establish healthy shallow-rooted grass coverage. The establishment of a viable plant community is inherently difficult on the Hanford Site for a variety of reasons, including inadequate and sporadic natural precipitation; windy conditions that produce large erosive forces; soils low in nutrients and organic matter; invasion of disturbed sites by aggressive, weedy annuals; and limited supplies of quality topsoil. This report describes the results of work designed to address three environmental issues (soil moisture, erosion, and soil nutrients). Compost and soil sealants were evaluated in various combinations with the expectation of developing revegetation procedures with a higher probability of success. (ERA citation 19:029457)