POST-MINING REHABILITATION OF DUNES ON THE NORTHEAST COAST OF SOUTH-AFRICA

This article examines a claim by environmentalists that miners revegetate but do not restore natural communities on coastal dunes subject to opencast mining. A test of the claim was conducted under a paradigm of ecological succession. It was supposed that restoring the natural communities required reinstatement of community process, and succession in particular. Thirty sample plots were located on unmined areas, and 37 on mined areas. Time-associated changes in community composition occurred on both unmined but disturbed, and mined, areas. Euclidean distance of disturbed stands from an average mature or climax stand decreased over time. There was no significant difference in this convergence on the climax state between mined and unmined areas. Plant species richness increased with time since disturbance, again with no significant difference between mined and unmined areas. It was concluded that succession was occurring on the mined land, and this succession did not differ materially from that on unmined areas.