Response of Vegetation to Various Mulches Used in Surface Mine Reclamation in Alabama and Kentucky - 7-Year Case History

摘要

Five different mulches and one mulch-amendment combination were evaluated in the reclamation of two different mine spoils, one in western Kentucky and one in northern Alabama. The treatments evaluated were bark, hardwood chips, straw, hay, hydromulch, and hydromulch plus Petroset SB emulsion. Test plots, approximately 1 acre, were instrumented with flumes to monitor discharge, erosion transects to measure erosion, suction lysimeters for sampling groundwater, and devices to sample the runoff water. In the first years of the study, bark, hay, and straw generally produced the best vegetative cover. Mulches high in biomass tended to favor the establishment of legumes over grass. After 7 years, the effects of the different mulch treatments were readily apparent at the Alabama site where the hardwood-chip plot had strikingly superior cover. Differences were not so apparent at the Kentucky site.