Ecological Studies on the Revegetation Process of Surface Coal Mined Areas in North Dakota. 6. Relationship between Cover and Aboveground Biomass

摘要

Assessment of revegetation success on mined lands is a difficult, time consuming task and has been the subject of a number of controversies. Present regulations require that both plant cover and aboveground plant biomass be measured for use in making that assessment. Of these two variables, biomass is the most time consuming to measure and requires destructive sampling, a most undesirable, requirement on fragile, recently revegetated areas. A study was done to evaluate the predictability of aboveground biomass production on revegetated mined sites and adjacent native prairies using plant cover estimates made with the point frame method. A positive, statistically significant correlation was demonstrated between plant cover and aboveground biomass regardless of the community type, species composition, diversity or level of biomass production. However, the latter did have their effects on the relationship and must be accounted for in any predictive equations.