Composition and structure of soil fauna community in the Dexing Copper Mine tailings pool after revegetation

The Dexing Copper Mine is one of the largest copper mines in Asia, but few studies have reported the soil fauna community composition after revegetation. This study investigated the influence of revegetation on the soil fauna communities and structures in three vegetation restoration models (designated as I, II, and III) and in a sample without revegetation (IV) in two tailings pools of Dexing Copper Mines 1 and 2 using modified Tullgren and Baermann methods. A total of 548 individuals were collected, which belonged to 5 classes, 7 orders, 3 suborders, and 19 families. The individuals, groups, and diversity of the soil fauna were significantly affected by the vegetation restoration model. In comparison to the sample without revegetation, the samples with revegetation showed a significant increase in the number of individuals and groups of soil fauna (P < 0.01) and significantly increased functional groups of the soil fauna community (P < 0.05). The number of individuals and groups of soil fauna were the highest in sample III, which was planted with trees and covered with guest soil, and the functional groups of the soil fauna community were the highest in samples II and III, which were both covered with guest soil. In principal component analysis, a significant difference was detected in the communities of soil fauna after revegetation, and the structures of soil fauna communities were similar in samples I and IV, which were not covered with guest soil. The number of individuals and groups of soil fauna was closely related to the revegetation in the Dexing Copper Mine tailings pool. These results should help in improved handling of the environmental issues associated with mines.

___

  • Asensio V, Covelo EF, Kandeler E (2013). Soil management of copper mine tailing soils—sludge amendment and tree vegetation could improve biological soil quality. Sci Total Environ 456: 82-90.
  • Berndtsson R, Nodomi K, Yasuda H, Persson T, Chen HS, Jinno K (1996). Soil water and temperature patterns in an arid desert dune sand. J Hydrol 185: 221-240.
  • Birkhofer K, Bezemer TM, Bloem J, Bonkowski M, Christensen S, Dubois D, Ekelund F, Fließbach A, Gunst L, Hedlund K et al. (2008). Long-term organic farming fosters below and aboveground biota: implications for soil quality, biological control and productivity. Soil Biol Biochem 40: 2297-2308.
  • Carrillo Y, Ball BA, Bradford MA, Jordan CF, Molina M (2011). Soil fauna alter the effects of litter composition on nitrogen cycling in a mineral soil. Soil Biol Biochem 43: 1440-1449.
  • Chen F, Yao Q, Tian JY (2016). Review of ecological restoration technology for mine tailings in China. Eng Rev 36: 115-121.
  • Chen HM, Zheng CR, Zhou DM, Tu C, Gao L (2005). Changes in soil fertility and extractable heavy metals in Dexing copper mine tailing pool after revegetation. Acta Pedologica Sinica 42: 29-36 (in Chinese).
  • Cristescu RH, Frère C, Banks PB (2012). A review of fauna in mine rehabilitation in Australia: current state and future directions. Biol Conserv 149: 60-72.
  • Decaëns T, Lavelle P (2011). Soil fauna diversity and ecosystem functions in grasslands. In: Lemaire G, Hodgson J, Chabbi A, editors. Grassland Productivity and Ecosystem Services. Wallingford, UK: CAB International, pp. 166-176.
  • Escobar IEC, Santos VM, da Silva DKA, Fernandes MF, Cavalcante UMT, Maia LC (2015). Changes in microbial community structure and soil biological properties in mined dune areas during re-vegetation. Environ Manag 55: 1433-1445.
  • Frouz J, Elhottová D, Pižl V, Tajovský K, Šourková M, Picek T, Malý S (2007). The effect of litter quality and soil faunal composition on organic matter dynamics in post-mining soil: a laboratory study. Appl Soil Ecol 37: 72-80.
  • Ge BM, Zhang DZ, Cui J, Jiang SH, Tong XH, Zhou CL, Tang BP (2016). Impact of dike age on biodiversity and functional composition of soil macrofaunal communities in poplar forests in a reclaimed coastal area. Turk J Zool 40: 241-247.
  • Ge F, Liu XH, Pan WD, Gao L, Zeng YP, Jiang BZ (2011). The role of earthworm in the ecological restoration of mining wasteland of Dexing Copper Mine in China. Acta Ecological Sinica 21: 1790-1795 (in Chinese).
  • Korboulewsky N, Perez G, Chauvat M (2016). How tree diversity affects soil fauna diversity: a review. Soil Biol Biochem 94: 94- 106.
  • Kreuzer K, Bonkowsk M, Langel R, Scheu S (2004). Decomposer animals (Lumbricidae, Collembola) and organic matter distribution affect the performance of Lolium perenne (Poaceae) and Trifolium repens (Fabaceae). Soil Biol Biochem 36: 2005-2011.
  • Lefebvre F, Gaudry E (2009). Forensic entomology: a new hypothesis for the chronological succession pattern of necrophagous insect on human corpses. Ann Soc Entomol Fr (N.S.) 45: 377- 392.
  • Li W, Cui LJ, Zhao XS, Zhang MY, Gao CJ, Zhang Y, Wang YF (2015). Community structure and diversity of soil animals in the Lake Taihu lakeshore wetland. Acta Ecol Sinica 35: 944-955 (in Chinese).
  • Li Y, Sun QY, Zhan J, Yang Y, Wang D (2016). Vegetation successfully prevents oxidization of sulfide minerals in mine tailings. J Environ Manag 177: 153-160.
  • Lu P, Xu YP, Tan F, Yang ZQ, Lin YH (2013). Relationship between cropland soil arthropods community and soil properties in black soil area. Sci Agricul Sinica 46: 1848-1856 (in Chinese).
  • Ma Y, Dickinson NM, Wong MH (2006). Beneficial effects of earthworms and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on establishment of leguminous trees on Pb/Zn mine tailings. Soil Biol Biochem 38: 1403-1412.
  • Margalef DR (1957). Information theory in ecology. Gen System 3: 36-71.
  • Monterroso C, Rodríguez F, Chaves R, Diez J, Becerra-Castro C, Kidd PS, Macías F (2014). Heavy metal distribution in mine- soils and plants growing in a Pb/Zn-mining area in NW Spain. Appl Geochem 44: 3-11.
  • Mukhopadhyay S, Masto RE, Yadav A, George J, Ram LC, Shukla SP (2016). Soil quality index for evaluation of reclaimed coal mine spoil. Sci Total Environ 542: 540-550.
  • Nelson KN, Neilson JW, Root RA, Chorover J, Maier RM (2015). Abundance and activity of 16S rRNA, AmoA and NifH bacterial genes during assisted phytostabilization of mine tailings. Int J Phytoremediat 17: 493-502.
  • Noble JC, Whitford WG, Kaliszweski M (1996). Soil and litter microarthropod populations form two contrasting ecosystems in semi-arid eastern Australia. J Arid Environ 32: 329-346.
  • Shannon CE, Weaver W (1949). The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urbana, IL, USA: University of Illinois Press.
  • Shao YH, Zhang WX, Shen JC, Zhou LX, Xia HP, Shu WS, Ferris H, Fu SL (2008). Nematodes as indicators of soil recovery in tailings of a lead/zinc mine. Soil Biol Biochem 40: 2040-2046.
  • Sharma RS, Al-Busaidi TS (2001). Groundwater pollution due to a tailings dam. Eng Geol 60: 235-244.
  • Socarrás A (2013). Soil mesofauna: biological indicator of soil quality. Pastosy Forrajes 36: 14-21.
  • Sun XB, Liu HY, Li YC, Zhang XP (2007). Impact of heavy metals pollution on the community structure and spatial distribution of soil animals. Chin J Appl Ecol 18: 2080-2084 (in Chinese).
  • Swift MJ, Andren O, Brussaard L, Briones M, Couteaux MM, Ekschmitt K, Kjoller A, Loiseau P, Smith P (1998). Global change, soil biodiversity, and nitrogen cycling in terrestrial ecosystems: three case studies. Glob Change Biol 4: 729-743.
  • Tie LH, Zhang LC, Feng MS, Bai WY, Wang L, He P (2015). Baking temperature and time on the effect of soil meso-and micro- fauna separation results. Journal of Sichuan Agricultural University 33: 45-50 (in Chinese).
  • Topp W, Simon M, Kautz G, Dworschak U, Nicolini F, Prückner S (2001). Soil fauna of a reclaimed lignite open-cast mine of the Rhineland: improvement of soil quality by surface pattern. Ecol Eng 17: 307-322.
  • Wang F, Huang YZ, Wang XL, Gao Z, Yu FX, Xu F, Hu Y, Qiao M, Jin ZL, Li J et al. (2014). Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in surrounding soils of a copper smelting plant in Jiangxi Province. Environ Chem 33: 1066-1074 (in Chinese).
  • Wang SJ, Ruan HH (2008). Feedback mechanisms of soil biota to aboveground biology in terrestrial ecosystems. Biodiver Sci 16: 407-416 (in Chinese).
  • Wang Y, Li YY, Shi JH, Guo J, Du JY (2012). Effect of different vegetation restoration measures on the species diversity and soil properties of iron tailings. J Soil Water Conser 3: 025 (in Chinese).
  • Wang YB, Liu DY, Zhang L, Li Y, Chu L (2004). Patterns of vegetation succession in the process of ecological restoration on the deserted land of Shizishan copper tailings in Tongling City. Acta Botanica Sinica 46: 780-787 (in Chinese).
  • Wong MH, Ma Y (2008). Land reclamation using earthworms in metal contaminated soils. Develop Soil Sci 32: 719-734.
  • Xie P, Hao XL, Herzberg M, Luo YT, Nies DH, Wei GH (2015). Genomic analyses of metal resistance genes in three plant growth promoting bacteria of legume plants in Northwest mine tailings, China. J Environ Sci 27: 179-187.
  • Xie XH, Zhu WX, Liu N, Liu JS (2013). Bacterial community composition in reclaimed and unreclaimed tailings of Dexing copper mine, China. Afr J Biotechn 12: 4841-4849.
  • Xu GL, Zhou GY, Mo JM, Zhou XY, Peng SJ (2005). The responses of soil fauna composition to forest restoration in Heshan. Acta Ecol Sinica 25: 1071-1077 (in Chinese).
  • Xu YP, Lu P, Tan F, Zou ZF, Wu JP, Lin YH (2013). Composition and structure of cropland soil fauna in black soil area of Jilin as affected by exogenous carbon and nitrogen. Acta Pedologica Sinica 50: 800-809 (in Chinese).
  • Yang X, Gao L (2001). A study on re-vegetation in mining wasteland of Dexing copper mine, China. Acta Eco Sinica 21: 1932-1940 (in Chinese).
  • Yin WY (1998). Pictorial Keys to Soil Animals of China. Beijing, China: Science Press (in Chinese).
  • Yin WY (2001). Review of soil zoology and its prospect. Bulletin Biol 36: 1-3 (in Chinese).
  • Yin XQ, Song B, Dong WH, Xin WD, Wang YQ (2010). A review on the eco-geography of soil fauna in China. J Geogr Sci 65: 91-102.
  • Yuan F (1996). Insect Taxonomy. Beijing, China: China Agriculture Press (in Chinese).
  • Zhang Y, Yang JY, Wu HL, Shi CQ, Zhang CL, Li DX, Feng MM (2014). Dynamic changes in soil and vegetation during varying ecological-recovery conditions of abandoned mines in Beijing. Ecol Eng 73: 676-683.
  • Zhao Y, Zhang P, Hu YG, Huang L (2016). Effects of re-vegetation on herbaceous species composition and biological soil crusts development in a coal mine dumping site. Environ Manag 57: 298-307.
  • Zhu YH, Li KZ, Yu J, Lu L (2012). Rehabilitation of soil fauna in reclaimed abandoned land of copper-mine-tailings. Chinese J Zool 47: 417-427 (in Chinese).