Rehabilitation of Disturbed Lands with Industrial Wastewater Sludge

Petrova, Tatyana A., Rudzisha, Edelina, Alekseenko, Alexey, Bech, Jaume and Pashkevich, Mariya A., (2022). Rehabilitation of Disturbed Lands with Industrial Wastewater Sludge. Minerals, 12(3), 1-19

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  • Sub-type Journal article
    Author Petrova, Tatyana A.
    Rudzisha, Edelina
    Alekseenko, Alexey
    Bech, Jaume
    Pashkevich, Mariya A.
    Title Rehabilitation of Disturbed Lands with Industrial Wastewater Sludge
    Appearing in Minerals
    Volume 12
    Issue No. 3
    Publication Date 2022-03-18
    Place of Publication Basel, Switzerland
    Publisher MDPI
    Start page 1
    End page 19
    Language eng
    Abstract Wastelands of the mining industry are among the largest of disturbed areas that demand revitalization. To reduce environmental impact and to better manage these geo-resources, the formation of sustainable plant and soil complexes and the restoration of self-recovery soil function are critical points. The successful return of vegetative cover at post-mining sites requires eliminating the deficiency of organic matter. For this, we assessed the usability of non-traditional ameliorants to provide a better understanding of benefits from mutual dependencies of environmental resources. To prevent losses and to close resource cycles, we studied the applicability of wastewater sludge from the pulp and paper (SPP) industry as an amendment to counteract soil degradation and rehabilitate human-disturbed lands. Waste rock limestone, beresite, and phosphogypsum substrates of post-mining sites were used in vitro for the application of sludge and peat mixture and consequent grass seeding. The formed vegetative cover was analyzed to compare the germination and biomass growth on reconstructed soils. We assessed the efficiency of ameliorant combinations by two approaches: (1) the traditional technique of cutting-off plant material to measure the obtained plant biomass, and (2) digital image analysis for RGB-processed photographs of the vegetative cover (r2 = 0.75–0.95). The effect of SPP on plant cover biomass and grass height showed similar results: land rehabilitation with the formation of a 20 cm soil layer on mine waste dumps was environmentally suitable with an SPP:soil ratio of 1:3. However, excessive application (ratio 1:1 of SPP to the soil) negatively affected seed germination and plant vegetation.
    Keyword Land revitalization
    Post-mining development
    Sustainable land-use management
    Resource Nexus
    Waste recycling
    Soil restoration
    Biomass production
    Copyright Holder The Authors
    Copyright Year 2022
    Copyright type Creative commons
    DOI 10.3390/min12030376
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    Created: Tue, 26 Apr 2022, 21:19:37 JST by Eric Siegmund on behalf of UNU FLORES