The Abiotic Habitat Factors and Soil Carbon Dioxide Release under Spontaneous Vegetation in Coal Mine Heaps

This research is focused on examining the link between the abiotic conditions of coal mine heaps (specifically, the type of spontaneous vegetation) and their respiration rates. The hypothesis is that there is a significant correlation between the carbon content of the soil substrate and the respiration rate of the coal mine heap among the abiotic factors studied. The investigation was carried out on the mineral material found in coal mining heaps, which consisted of Carboniferous mineral rock material. The fieldwork spanned the vegetation seasons from 2018 to 2022. Various physicochemical parameters of the substrate samples were analyzed, including soil organic carbon content, electrical conductivity (EC), pH, total nitrogen (TN), available forms of phosphorus (P2O5) content, available magnesium (MgO) concentration, exchangeable cations (K+, Na+), and moisture. Soil respiration measurements were taken using the TARGAZ -1 analyzer. The amount of carbon dioxide released at the sites studied ranged from 0.00158 to 1.21462 [g CO2/m2/h]. It was found that the carbon content and all the environmental factors tested had a significant impact on soil respiration (p = 0.001), except total nitrogen (p = 0.893). The factors most strongly correlated with soil respiration were potassium (K), alkaline phosphatase, and SRL (soil respiration). Of the taxa analyzed, only the below-ground conditions provided by the vegetation communities dominated by Centaurea stoebe showed a significant correlation with SRL. Three dominant plant species influenced the development of below-ground conditions, leading to negative effects. On the other hand, the below-ground conditions associated with vegetation patches dominated by Daucus carota showed the strongest negative correlation.