Restoring soil fertility on degraded mining lands

This book is based on the research conducted by the authors over the last 3 years. The book presents solutions to improve soil quality on mining dumps by carrying out pot experiments considering soil substitutes based on mixtures of industrial waste, household biodegradables, and cow manure and by using soil improver plant species. A logical scheme type method, which includes the necessary steps that aim to accelerate the pedogenesis process on mining dumps, was developed and it can be easily applied to any type of mining dump. Experiments were carried out in vegetation pots and were closely monitored from seeding to harvesting. Individual soil quality indices were described and a methodology was proposed and applied to assess the aggregate anthropogenic soil quality index. The research was carried out at the level of the interior dump of Pesteana Nord open-pit from Rovinari mining basin, Romania. Briefly, the main aim of the paper is to look for such solutions to accelerate the restoration of a fertile substrate on dumps, especially in cases where the topsoil was not extracted and stored before mining and dumping works.