Home – Home – Jornals – Contemporary Problems of Ecology 2021 number 2

A five-year study was carried out to investigate the possibility of creating a nature-like community of meadow-steppe plant species with the dominance of Stipa capillata L. on an overburden dump at the Vinogradov coal mine (Kemerovo region). The preparation of the dump surface for revegetation consisted in spreading the technogenic eluvium and covering it with a 10 cm layer of fertile topsoil (TS), which was taken from soil heaps formed during the formation of the dump, or potentially fertile undersoil (US) represented by loess-like loams. The control was a horizontal section of a sandstone slope with a lithogenically under-developed soil layer without applying TS and/or US. An herbal-seed blend (HSB) was harvested during summer and autumn months on steppe slopes of the “Bachatskiye Sopki” regional botanical reserve, the vegetation of which included meadow-steppe plant communities dominated by S. capillata . Observations were carried out over 5 years during the 2015-2019 period. It was found that the growth and development of S. capillata was most pronounced in loamy soils. In such soils, individual plants begin to bloom during the 1st year, while all plants bloom and bear fruit in the 3rd year. The share of S. capillata in the total productivity comprised 83.6 % by the 5th year of observations. S. capillata plants form a powerful sod thus competing with weeds. In experiments with the application of TS, the share of S. capillata comprised 4-8 % from 2015 to 2018, increasing to 30.1 % in 2019. In this experimental site, suppression of individual S. capillata plants was associated with the highly competitive Elytrigia repens (L.) Nevski species, whose rhizomes were introduced to the site with the TS from soil heaps. In the control, an S. capillata community was formed during the 4th-5th year as a result of re-seeding from experimental sites.