Green helpers: the role of plants in mine reclamation

Bio­log­i­cal recul­ti­va­tion is one of the types of mine recla­ma­tion, which is a set of mea­sures aimed at cre­at­ing favor­able con­di­tions for agri­cul­tur­al crops and for­est plants. Bio­log­i­cal recul­ti­va­tion includes the appli­ca­tion of fer­til­iz­ers and veg­e­ta­tion plant­i­ng, which helps pre­serve soil’s mois­ture reten­tion capa­bil­i­ties and pro­tect it from nutri­ent loss and ero­sion while reduc­ing the impact of indus­tri­al pol­lu­tion.

Soil restoration

Some plant species have the abil­i­ty to con­tribute to the restora­tion of soil, thus increas­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty. They can have a pos­i­tive impact on the struc­ture of soil, con­tribute to the increase of fer­til­i­ty and for­ma­tion of humus, and also pro­vide shel­ter and food for var­i­ous ani­mal species. The fol­low­ing are some exam­ples of such plants:

• Alfal­fa (Med­ica­go sati­va), also known as lucerne, is an excel­lent plant for soil restora­tion due to its long roots, which help to pre­serve the integri­ty of soil, improve its struc­ture and water per­me­abil­i­ty. Alfal­fa is suit­able for sow­ing on slopes (for exam­ple, those of waste rock dumps) and helps pre­vent land­slides.
• Clover (Tri­foli­um) helps increase the fer­til­i­ty of the soil by enrich­ing it with nitroge­nous com­pounds thanks to bio­log­i­cal nitro­gen fix­a­tion by bac­te­ria inhab­it­ing its root sys­tem.
• Sea-buck­thorn (Hip­pophae rham­noides) is indis­pens­able for restor­ing degrad­ed areas, as it has a strong root sys­tem that is able to hold the soil on the slope and pre­vent erosion.It also pro­vides shel­ter for wild ani­mals and food for birds.
• Rape­seed (Bras­si­ca napus) is a plant that can grow on bar­ren land and can be used to restore soil after min­ing operations.It helps to improve the struc­ture of the soil and enrich­es it with organ­ic sub­stances.
• Indus­tri­al hemp (Cannabis sati­va) does not have a psy­chotrop­ic effect, but is capa­ble of pro­tect­ing soil from dehy­dra­tion, ero­sion and land­slides due to its strong and expan­sive root sys­tem.
• Seed mix­tures of dif­fer­ent plants. The use of seed mix­tures of dif­fer­ent species of plants with dif­fer­ent prop­er­ties allows for a more com­pre­hen­sive approach to soil restora­tion. A mix­ture of smooth brome (Bro­mus iner­mis Leyss.) and sain­foin (Ono­brychis are­nar­ia), used by the “Vesco” com­pa­ny dur­ing the recla­ma­tion of clay and loam deposits for use as pas­tures, has proven to be effec­tive. The pos­i­tive effect of phy­tome­lio­rants – hon­ey clover (Melilo­tus albus) and sweet yel­low clover (Melilo­tus offic­i­nalis) on saline soils was researched.

These and oth­er plants can be used in pro­grams of min­ing enter­pris­es recla­ma­tion, depend­ing on the spe­cif­ic con­di­tions and pur­pose of recla­ma­tion. It is impor­tant to remem­ber that suc­cess­ful recla­ma­tion begins with a high-qual­i­ty project of mine devel­op­ment and recla­ma­tion and depends on study­ing the con­di­tions of the area and choos­ing appro­pri­ate plants for bio­log­i­cal recul­ti­va­tion.

Water body restoration

Some plants are used to clean water bod­ies thanks to their abil­i­ty to absorb pol­lu­tion. This process, known as phy­top­u­rifi­ca­tion or plant-based water purifi­ca­tion, is an effec­tive and envi­ron­men­tal­ly safe way to remove pol­lu­tants from water bod­ies. The fol­low­ing are some plants that are active­ly used in such man­ner:

• Com­mon reed (Phrag­mites aus­tralis) is one of the most com­mon plants for phytopurification.It has the abil­i­ty to remove con­t­a­m­i­nants such as heavy met­als, oils and petro­le­um and improve water qual­i­ty.
• Cat­tail (Typha spp.) is very effec­tive at remov­ing con­t­a­m­i­nants from water, organ­ic mat­ter and bac­te­ria.
• Com­mon duck­weed (Lem­na minor) has the abil­i­ty to effec­tive­ly puri­fy water from var­i­ous pol­lu­tants, par­tic­u­lar­ly, nitro­gen com­pounds.
• Water let­tuce (Pis­tia stra­tiotes) is a hyper­ac­cu­mu­la­tor, and can absorb tox­ic heavy met­als present in the envi­ron­ment. It is capa­ble of sig­nif­i­cant­ly improv­ing the water qual­i­ty in waste ponds of min­ing enter­pris­es.
• Gold­en algae (Chrys­o­phy­ta) pro­duce organ­ic sub­stances, are capa­ble of accu­mu­lat­ing pol­lu­tion and improv­ing the com­po­si­tion of dis­solved gas­es of the reser­voir.

These plants and oth­er phy­top­u­ri­fiers can be used indi­vid­u­al­ly or in com­bi­na­tion to effec­tive­ly restore the puri­ty of water bod­ies and improve water qual­i­ty. Their use is envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly and has become an increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar way of com­bat­ing water pol­lu­tion.

Air quality improvement

Plants are nat­ur­al air puri­fiers and play an impor­tant role in improv­ing indoor and out­door air qual­i­ty. They help remove harm­ful sub­stances and pol­lut­ing gas­es such as formalde­hyde, ben­zene, toluene, ammo­nia, nitro­gen oxides, etc. by absorb­ing and pro­cess­ing these sub­stances. The fol­low­ing are some of the plants that are wide­ly used to puri­fy the air:

• Pine (Pinus L.) active­ly absorbs car­bon diox­ide and oth­er harm­ful gas­es, such as nitro­gen and sul­fur oxides.They also emit spe­cif­ic aro­mat­ic com­pounds that can improve air qual­i­ty.
• Maple (Acer L.) has the abil­i­ty to absorb many types of pol­lu­tants, includ­ing soot par­ti­cles and oth­er sol­id par­ti­cles that pol­lute the air in cities.
• Fir (Abies) helps absorb nitro­gen oxides and oth­er harm­ful gas­es emit­ted by indus­tri­al activ­i­ties.
• Mag­no­lia (Mag­no­lia) has the abil­i­ty to absorb nitro­gen oxides and oth­er tox­ic gas­es.
• Lin­den (Tilia) effec­tive­ly reduces the con­tent of soot par­ti­cles and oth­er sol­id par­ti­cles in the air.
• Wil­low (Sal­ix L.) helps remove the nitro­gen oxides and oth­er pol­lut­ing gas­es from the air.
• Com­mon mul­ber­ry (Morus alba) is an effec­tive fil­ter for phe­nol, ace­tone and oth­er tox­ic organ­ic com­pounds.
• Aspen (P. trem­u­la) has the abil­i­ty to absorb sul­fur diox­ide, among oth­er pol­lu­tants.
• Three-lobe beg­garticks (Bidens tri­par­ti­ta) can absorb ace­tone, ammo­nia and oth­er volatile organ­ic com­pounds.
• Dog rose (Rosa can­i­na L.) is capa­ble of puri­fy­ing air from heavy met­als such as lead and cad­mi­um.

These plants, togeth­er with oth­er trees and shrubs, can cre­ate nat­ur­al bar­ri­ers that help reduce air pol­lu­tion and improve the qual­i­ty of the envi­ron­ment in areas that have been adverse­ly affect­ed by indus­tri­al activ­i­ty. The use of plants for air purifi­ca­tion is becom­ing an increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar method of com­bat­ing pol­lu­tion in the indus­tri­al regions of our coun­try.