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Spontaneous revegetation versus forestry reclamation—Vegetation development in coal mining spoil heaps across Central Europe
Author(s) -
Šebelíková Lenka,
Csicsek Gábor,
Kirmer Anita,
Vítovcová Kamila,
OrtmannAjkai Adrienne,
Prach Karel,
Řehounková Klára
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
land degradation and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1099-145X
pISSN - 1085-3278
DOI - 10.1002/ldr.3233
Subject(s) - revegetation , land reclamation , vegetation (pathology) , woodland , species richness , restoration ecology , forestry , environmental science , agroforestry , coal mining , geography , ecology , coal , biology , medicine , archaeology , pathology
Comparison of spontaneous revegetation and forestry reclamation can provide valuable information about the trajectories and rate of vegetation development applicable to restoration practice over broader geographical scales. In the current study, we sampled terrestrial vegetation in spontaneously revegetated and forestry reclaimed spoil heaps after brown coal mining differing in age in three regions across Central Europe (Germany, the Czech Republic, and Hungary). The main objective was to compare the course of vegetation development and species richness between the two restoration methods over a large geographical scale. In all geographical regions, species richness was higher on spontaneously revegetated sites. Although the starting point differed across regions, trajectories to woodland development converged with time. In addition, spontaneous revegetation was comparably as fast as forestry reclamation in developing towards woodland. Spontaneous revegetation proved to be more valuable and cost‐effective in terms of nature conservation and should be considered as an alternative restoration strategy to forestry reclamation in Central Europe.