The effect of soil amendments on plant performance in an area affected by acid mine drainage

A field experiment was carried out in order to assess the effect of urea, topsoil and municipal compost addition on plant performance and on the uptake of heavy metals by plants from contaminated soil. The experimental site was a disturbed soil in spite of remediation actions after several decades of uranium leaching (Eastern Thuringia, Germany) in 2004. Two plant species, Lupinus angustifolius L. and Secale cereale L. were grown at the site in a controlled experiment. We estimated the differences in soil pH, soil humidity, metal content, S-SO4, P-PO4, nitrogen (ammonium, nitrate and nitrite), plant growth, and plant uptake of metals between the experimental variants. The study indicated that the most efficient treatment (in terms of biomass increase) was compost, followed by topsoil and urea addition. The mechanism underlying this effect was the change in soil parameters leading to higher availability of nutrients. There was, however, a depletion of the soil nitrogen in the amended variants at the end of the growing season. (c) 2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.