Abstract
A primary soil-forming process can take place on the concentration waste of apatite-nepheline ores, whose biological recultivation was carried out more than 40 years ago. This process is characterized by the following features: forming of a thin litter with the content of organic carbon at the level of 8-12%, accumulation of humic substances in the sub-litter layer and the change of рН values. Microorganisms are biocatalysts of primary soil formation processes and one of the main factors that determine the specificity of this process. The prokaryotic complex of the newly formed soils, generated from nepheline sands, is considerably different from that of zonal soils on moraine sediments. The former ones are dominated by gram-positive bacteria, mainly actinobacteria, as well as by their filamentous forms (actinomycetes), whereas the latter ones are dominated by gram-negative bacteria. A common feature of invertebrate’s complexes in nepheline sands is the low species diversity, small-size and quickly development of microfauna and mesofauna representatives and the dependence of succession of microarthropods pioneer groups on the succession of bacteria and fungi.
Highlights
The mining and processing industry, which in the Murmansk region comprises several large enterprises, damages natural landscapes both as a result of open mining operations and due to the generation of overburden and mineral concentration waste dumps
At present we have identified in the sands of the tailing dump, reclaimed over 40 years ago, —26 species related to 10 genera, 7 orders, 4 classes and 2 divisions; in recently filled sands—only 12 species related to 8 genera, 5 orders, 4 classes and 2 divisions
A primary soil-forming process is taking place on ore concentration wastes of apatite-nepheline industry, whose biological recultivation was carried out 40 years ago
Summary
The mining and processing industry, which in the Murmansk region comprises several large enterprises, damages natural landscapes both as a result of open mining operations and due to the generation of overburden and mineral concentration waste dumps. As a result of activity of large concentration mills a large number of ore processing wastes are generated and stored in tailing dumps. The operating and dormant tailing dumps represent a source of significant dusting of adjacent areas, since erosion processes are much developed on them as well as in natural and man-induced deserts. The investigation of primary soil formation processes, which take place on nepheline sands, was carried out from May to October 2005-2008 every years on tailing dumps with different duration of waste storage: 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 years. As a whole 180 sand samples have been taken for chemical and microbiological analyses and 300 samples for the zoological one
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