Nutrient dispersion modeling of coal overburden dumps for reclamation and sustainable management
M. Sundararajan, V. Vambol, S. Vambol, N. Kumari, I. Ansari
Received: 2 August 2018
Accepted: 20 September 2018
Published online: 22 September 2018
ABSTRACT
This study presents an innovative approach for the effective reclamation and management of coal overburden dumps. The study reveals that the existing and liberated nutrients due to natural phenomena are washed away by the run-off in the form of leachate during resting period of 5 years. The concentration of organic matters and organic carbon are also decreasing and as the result of these phenomena, the electric conductivity also decreases. The nutrients on the top layer starts increasing during 6th years while nutrient amendment was done just before plantation by means of bio-degradable manures on the top-soil amended on the dump materials for reclamation purpose. After plantation, it has been observed that the nutrient loss on the top-layer is very less due to plantation as the roots control the soil erosion. However, there is no significant improvement in the nutrient refilling the dump as the leaves fall is not much. The nutrient status of the dump after plantation has been studied for different ages 6…10, 11…15, 16…30 years using the predictive model and the probable reasons have been well discussed. The study concludes that there are no soil amendments after 10 years but the plants are found to be capable to significantly refill the nutrients as there is a huge quantity of leaf-drops from the planted trees and become compost after going through the process of decaying to serve the plants. In this way, the plants survive without requirements of nutrient amendments meeting its nutrients themselves and such a capability of self-satisfying characteristics of plants through nutrient transaction between soil and plants go on as a cyclic phenomenon through the natural process due to recurrent seasonal changes. As a result of the combined effect of penetrated plant roots in all the directions across the soil and dump materials and the increased organic matter decreases the bulk density and increases the water holding capacity.
Keywords: reclamation of coal overburden dumps; nutrient dispersion modeling; overburden dump management.
REFERENCES
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ЛІТЕРАТУРА
1. Akers J. D., Muter B. R. Gob pile stabilization and reclamation // In Proceedings of the 4th Mineral Waste Utilization Symposium. Chicago, Illinois. 1974. P. 229–239.
2. Singh A. Growth and leaf nutrient status of companion species as influenced by neighbouring species in mixed plantations raised on mine spoil // Tropical Ecology. 2006. Vol. 47, Issue 2. Р. 259–269.
3. Campbell D. B. Resloping of waste rock dump // International Mine Waste Management News. 1992. Vol. 2, Issue 2. Р. 7–10.
4. Chaubey O. P., Priyanka B., Singhal P. K. Impact of Bio-reclamation of Coal Mine Spoil on Nutritional and Microbial Characteristics - A Case Study // International Journal of Bio-Science and Bio-Technology. 2012. Vol. 4, Issue 3.
5. Ghose M. K. Damage of land due to coal mining and conservation of topsoil for land reclamation // Environment and Ecology. 1996. Vol. 14, Issue 2. Р. 466–468.
6. Jorgensen S. E. Models as instruments for combination of ecological theory and environmental practice // Ecological Modelling. 1994. Vol. 75–76. Р. 5–20.
7. Maiti S. K., Saxena N. C. Biological reclamation of coalmine spoils without topsoil: An amendment study with domestic raw sewage and grass-legumes mixture // International Journal of Surface Mining. Reclamation and Environment. 1998. Vol. 12. Р. 87–90.
8. Rai A. K., Paul B., Singh G. Assessment of soil quality in the vicinity of subsided area in the south eastern part of Jharia Coalfield, Jharkhand, India-Int. // Jr of Report and Opinion. 2009. Vol. 1, Issue 6. Р. 18–23.
9. Mukhopadhyay S., Maiti S. K. Natural mycorrhizal colonization in tree species growing on the reclaimed coalmine overburden dumps: case study from Jharia coalfields, India // THE BIOSCAN – A special issue. 2010. Vol. 3. Paper presented in International Conference on Environment, Energy and Development. December 10–12, 2010. Р.761–770.
10. Singh A. Growth performance of native tropical tree species on a Coal mine spoil on Singrauli A. coalfields India // International Journal of Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering. 2015. Vol. 1, Issue 1. Р. 16–19.
11. Singh J. S., Jha A. K. Restoration of degraded land: an overview // Restoration of Degraded Land: Concepts and Strategies. Rastogi Publications, Meerut. 1993. Р. 1–9.
12. Sheoran V., Sheoran A. S., Poonia P. Soil Reclamation of Abandoned Mine Land by Revegetation: A Review // International Journal of Soil, Sediment and Water. 2010. Vol. 3, Issue 2. Р. 1–21.
13. Kujur M., Patel A. K. Comparative assessment of physico-chemical properties influencing microbial biomass as biomarker in monitoring soil status on chronosequences of iron mine overburden spoil // International Journal of Environmental Sciences. 2013. Vol. 3, Issue 5. Р. 1657–1670.
14. Jitesh Kumar M., Amiya Kumar P. Physico-chemical characterization and mine soil genesis in age series coal mine overburden spoil in chronosequence in a dry tropical environment // Journal of Phylogen Evolution Biology. 2013. Vol. 1. Р. 101. doi:10.4172/jpgeb.1000101.
15. Patel A. K., Behera N. Genetic diversity of coal mine spoil by metagenomes using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker // Indian Journal of Biotechnology. 2011. Vol. 10. Р. 90–96.
16. Carter M. R. Soil quality for sustainable land management: organic matter and aggregation interactions that maintain soil functions // Agronomy Journal. 2002. Vol. 94. Р. 38–47.
17. Singh G., Gupta S. K., Kumar R., Sundararajan M. Mathematical Modeling of Leachate from Ash Ponds of Thermal Power Plants // International journal of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 2007. Vol. 130, Issue 1–3. Р. 173–185.
18. Smith J. L., Doran J. W. Measurement and Use of pH and Electrical Conductivity for Soil Quality Analysis // Methods For assessing Soil Quality, Soil Science Society of America Journal. 1996. Vol. 49.