Carmen CastorCSER Research
Carmen Castor acquired her PhD in South America studying seed dispersal and germination in the Andes. In 2003 she joined the University of Newcastle and has since researched methods of coal mine rehabilitation and restoration of offsets. She also worked for a year at OEH gaining insight into government policy. Currently she continues to work as a Conjoint Lecturer at the University of Newcastle and also is working as Senior Scientist at CSER Research a consulting company for research and monitoring on coal mines.
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Abstract
Sustainable Ecological Communities on Mine rehabilitation.
A growing number of mine sites have increasingly strict rehabilitation conditions placed on them by government agencies to produce sustainable Ecologically Endangered Communities (EEC’s). We still have no real evidence that re-establishing EEC’s is possible, or becoming sustainable.
We investigated the use of forest topsoil, substitute capping materials, and organic ameliorants (coarse wood mulch and OGM) seeded with species drawn from local EEC’s and adjacent vegetation, in a statistically valid field design covering 0.7ha.
Results for 50 species on 9 treatments (n=6) are shown together with an analysis of hypothetical sustainability of plant populations.
Most of the species seeded emerged initially. Many other species were also contributed by substrates which already contained a native soil seed bank totalling 120 native species. On further analysis, 80 species had at least 6 individuals, a number arbitrarily chosen to represent a possible “sustainable” population.
Data was compared to the ideal species mix found in EEC’s but successfully established communities on the different substrate types are all moving away from the desired EEC composition.
We conclude that establishment of a larger than expected variety of species is possible on mine rehabilitation, but that attaining a desired composition may be more difficult.
Sustainable Ecological Communities on Mine rehabilitation.
A growing number of mine sites have increasingly strict rehabilitation conditions placed on them by government agencies to produce sustainable Ecologically Endangered Communities (EEC’s). We still have no real evidence that re-establishing EEC’s is possible, or becoming sustainable.
We investigated the use of forest topsoil, substitute capping materials, and organic ameliorants (coarse wood mulch and OGM) seeded with species drawn from local EEC’s and adjacent vegetation, in a statistically valid field design covering 0.7ha.
Results for 50 species on 9 treatments (n=6) are shown together with an analysis of hypothetical sustainability of plant populations.
Most of the species seeded emerged initially. Many other species were also contributed by substrates which already contained a native soil seed bank totalling 120 native species. On further analysis, 80 species had at least 6 individuals, a number arbitrarily chosen to represent a possible “sustainable” population.
Data was compared to the ideal species mix found in EEC’s but successfully established communities on the different substrate types are all moving away from the desired EEC composition.
We conclude that establishment of a larger than expected variety of species is possible on mine rehabilitation, but that attaining a desired composition may be more difficult.
Presentation
Sustainable Ecological Communities on Mine rehabilitation.
Presented on 30th March 2017 at the 7th Annual Best Practice Ecological Rehabilitation of Mined Lands Conference (2017)
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