Abstract
The mining industry has been continuously involved in initiatives to reduce the emission of green house gases in to atmosphere. Control measures have been introduced in all steps starting from the mining of coal to energy production. Reclamation of mined land was and is one of the eco-friendly measures adopted by the industry. Apart from the inherent benefits of reclamation to improve on and offsite environmental quality, its potential to produce biomass and enhance soil organic carbon (SOC) has not been addressed. Reclamative effects of establishing forest and pasture with (graded) and without topsoil (ungraded) application on soil quality and soil carbon sequestration was studied on mine land in Ohio. The SOC pool for 0--30 cm depth for the undisturbed control sites was 56.6 MgC/ha for forest and 66.3 MgC/ha for pasture. In comparison, the SOC pool in the forest and pasture of graded mineland for 0--30 cm depth after 25 years of reclamation was 58.9 MgC/ha and 62.7 MgC/ha respectively. In ungraded mineland, the SOC pool in the 0--30 cm depth after 30 years of reclamation was 51.5 MgC/ha in forest and 58.9 MgC/ha in the pasture.
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