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Fairway crested wheatgrass [Agropyron cristutum (L.) Gaertn.] was analyzed to determine the possible effects of coal spoils at the Dave Johnston Mine, Wyoming, on the chemical composition of this widely used reclamation species. Concentrations of 8 of the 26 elements tested by analysis of variance showed significant differences between the samples growing in IO-15 cm of topsoil covering the spoils and samples from soils nearby. Samples from the mined areas showed about 50% higher concentrations. Concentrations of manganese and uranium, however, were about 150 and 200% higher, respectively. Concentrations of the trace elements cobalt, manganese, and zinc-essential in animal nutrition-ranged from deficient levels in “control” samples to adequate or marginal levels in samples from reclaimed spoils. The phosphorus content of grasses that grew on spoil material was two-thirds that of the control grasses, to the point where the former may be nutritionally deficient as a cattle forage. Crested wheatgrass was sampled at the Dave Johnston mine at the southern edge of the Powder River Basin in Wyoming as part of a larger study designed to assess the effects of reclaimed spoils on the element concentrations in vegetation from eight surface coal mines in the Northern Great Plains (Erdman and Ebens 1975). This species of wheatgrass dominates the revegetated spoil banks at the Dave Johnston Mine, as it does at many of the surface mines that were sampled. The Dave Johnston Mine is located about 24 km northeast of Glenrock, in Converse County, site of Pacific Power and Light Company’s Dave Johnston powerplant. Crested wheatgrass is used both as a forage for cattle (Blincoe and Lambert 1972) and for land reclamation (Bauer et al. 1976). It is used more widely for reseeding purposes than any other grass, and has been recommended for reseeding depleted rangelands in semiarid regions (Sotola 1940). Along with bromegrass, it has been a widely used cultivated grass in the Canadian Prairies (Heinrichs and Carson 1956). Its nutritional value and palatability are high when the plant is green and succulent, but decrease as it becomes mature (Sotola 1940; Pingrey and Dortignac 1959). This cool-season grass apparently does not retain its forage value through the summer grazing season as do many of the native warm-season grasses (Heim-khs and Carson 1956). For this reason optimum utilization of such pasturage might require rotational grazing. The authors are botanist and geologist, respectively, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado 80125. Authors thank W. Cary, T.F. Harms, M.J. Malcolm, andC.S.E. Papp, who performed the chemical analyses at the Denver Laboratories of the U.S. Geological Survey. Approval to sample at the mine was granted by James Sarvey, Pacific Power and Light Company. Manuscript received March 9, 1978. JOURNAL OF RANGE MANAGEMENT32(2), March 1979 Methods Sampling was conducted on July 24, 1974, when growth of wheatgrass was at the mature seed stage of development. A three-level analysis of variance design was used. The purpose of the first level was to assess differences in element concentrations between crested wheatgrass growing on spoil materials and on soils native to the site (topsoil borrow). The second level was included to estimate the degree of uniformity in the element contents of wheatgrass within the two substrate types. A third level, based on the analyses of duplicates or splits of each sample, was included to estimate the laboratory precision (reproducibility). This precision was satisfactory for all elements but mercury, so the variability observed in the data was, for the most part, natural. Ten samples were collected at randomly selected locations within two tracts of reclaimed spoil piles. Two of these locations were within a 19-ha tract that had been seeded in autumn 1969 with a seed mixture that included standard crested wheatgrass [Agropyron desertorum (Fisch.) Schult]. The remaining eight locations were within a 45ha tract seeded in autumn 1972. The seed mixture in this latter tract included Fairway crested wheatgrass [A. cristutum (L.) Gaertn]. Both tracts had been covered with lo15 cm of topsoil prior to seeding, but the kind of surface material at the sampling locations varied considerably, ranging from spoil material (mixed overburden and coal) to as much as 15 cm of topsoil. The predominant soils in the area are mapped (U.S. Soil Conservation Service 1970) as Haplargids, used mostly for range and some irrigated crops. The only sites available for collecting control samples of crested wheatgrass were two topsoil borrow areas adjoining the active mine. The upper lo15 cm of topsoil and vegetation had been removed with self-loading scrapers and spread over the reshaped spoils. One of the areas, 12 ha, was seeded in spring 1972; the other area, 28 ha, was seeded in autumn of the same year. Both borrow areas were seeded with Fairway crested wheatgrass. The concentrations of elements observed in these borrow-area samples were generally close to the concentrations found in crested wheatgrass growing in native soils in western North Dakota (unpublished data). We clipped the mature grass samples about 15 cm above the ground surface in order to minimize soil contamination. Samples were then placed in cloth bags, taken to the U.S. Geological Survey laboratories, and pulverized in a Wiley mill. The resulting homogenized material was divided into two equal portions. The number of samples for this study was therefore doubled from 20 field samples to 40 laboratory samples. These 40 samples wei-e then placed in a randomized sequence, thereby transforming any systematic laboratory error that may be present into a random error. A weighed portion of each sample was burned to ash in a muffle furnace in which the heat was increased 50°C per hour to a temperature of 550°C and held at this temperature for 14 hours. The resulting ash was then weighed to determine the ash yield. Weighed aliquots of the samples were wet ashed, according to methods described by Harms and Papp (1975), in order to determine the

Element Content of Crested Wheatgrass Grown on Reclaimed Coal Spoils and on Soils Nearby