Practice AP Environmental Science questions on soil texture, horizons, porosity, permeability, water holding capacity, and fertility.
Two restoration methods designed to reclaim the overburden piles removed from open pit coal mines in temperate forests of eastern Europe were studied over several years. The first method was spontaneous restoration, where the soil and rock were dumped in noncompacted, random piles and not replanted with vegetation. The second method was technical restoration, where the land was leveled by heavy machinery, organic material was added, and eight plant species were added. Technical restoration started 5 years after the piles were formed, so no bar is included in the 1-5 year range in the graph.
Number of Plant Species in Spontaneous and Technically Restored Overburden Piles over Time
Explain how the results of the experiment would likely have been altered if the soil had contained a higher percentage of sand, which has the largest particle size of the components of loam.
Runoff from mining waste can also affect water quality.