CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN RECLAIMED MINED SOILS OF OHIO

Abstract

Assessment of soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration potential of reclaimed minesoils (RMS) is important for preserving environmental quality and increasing agronomic yields. The mechanism of physical SOC sequestration is achieved by encapsulation of SOM in spaces within macro and microaggregates. The experimental sites, owned and maintained by American Electrical Power, were characterized by distinct age chronosequences of reclaimed minesoils and were located in Guernsey, Morgan, Noble, and Muskingum Counties of Ohio. These sites were reclaimed both with and without topsoil application, and were under continuous grass or forest cover. In this report results are presented from the sites reclaimed in 2003 (R03-G), in 1973 (R73-F), in 1969 (R69-G), in 1962 (R62-G and R62-F) and in 1957 (R57-F). Three sites are under continuous grass cover and the three under forest cover since reclamation. Three bulk soil samples were collected from each site from three landscape positions (upper; middle, and lower) for 0-15 and 15-30 cm depths. The samples were air dried and using wet sieving technique were fractionated into macro (> 2mm), meso (2-0.25 mm) and microaggregate (0.25-0.053 mm). These fractions were weighted separately and water stable aggregation (WSA) and geometric mean (GMD) and mean weight (MWD) diameters of aggregates were obtained. The soil C and N concentrations were also determined on these aggregate fractions. Analysis of mean values showed that in general, WSA and MWD of aggregates increased with increasing duration since reclamation or age of reclaimed soil for all three landscape positions and two depths in sites under continuous grass. The forest sites were relatively older than grass sites and therefore WSA or MWD of aggregates did not show any increases with age since reclamation. The lower WSA in R57-F site than R73-F clearly showed the effect of soil erosion on aggregate stability. Higher aggregation and aggregate diameters in R73-F than R62-F and R57-F also showed the importance of reclamation with topsoil application on improving soil structure. Soil C and N concentrations were lowest for the site reclaimed in year 2003 in each aggregate fraction for both depths. The higher C and N concentrations each aggregate size fraction in older sites than the newly reclaimed site demonstrated the sequestration potential of younger sites.