Effects of exogenous attapulgite addition on water conservation function of reclaimed soils in a semi-arid mining area

Abstract

Large-scale mining has greatly damaged vegetation and caused ecological degradation in the semi-arid area in China. It is urgent to restore the vegetation to solve the deteriorating ecological and environmental problems in mining area. How to reclaim soils for effectively storing and utilizing precipitation is the primary issue for vegetation restoration in the area. In this study, we proposed to take the mixture of attapulgite clay and local sandy soils as covering materials to improve the weak water conservation function of soils in mining areas, and studied the effects of the addition of attapulgite clay on soil infiltration, drainage and water storage sampled from the Shenmu mining area. The results showed that, with increasing application rates of attapulgite clay, the cumulated infiltration volumes decreased by 4.8%-37.4%, the infiltration rates dropped by 6.4%-46.3%, the wetting front advance rates decreased by 9.8%-116.9%, the saturated hydraulic conductivities decreased by 14.3%-59.5%, the drained water volumes reduced by 0.3%-4.3% for 24 hours and by 0.3%-2.5% for 72 hours, and the maximum soil water storages increased by 1.6%-22.4%. The maximum effect of attapulgite clay peaked at the application rate of 150 t·hm-2. Considering the economic cost, the optimum application rate should be 30-150 t·hm-2. The results syste-matically revealed the mechanism of reclaiming mining soils with attapulgite clay to restore the function of water conservation, and demonstrated that attapulgite clay is an effective material for soil reclamation in the semi-arid mining area, which can provide references for soil reclamation and ecological restoration in the semi-arid mining area.