Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Microbial Pool And Soil Carbon Cycling On Reclaimed Surface Mine Sites, Alice Jones, Guy Evans, James Fox

Alice Jones

The southern Appalachian region is an important source of coal resources. The wide scale practice of surface mining in this region leads to the landscape-scale removal of surface material and soils, a large carbon reservoir and important component of the carbon cycle. To date, few scientific studies have examined the development of the soil carbon cycle on post-reclamation mine sites in this region. In particular, development of the microbial pool and its role in carbon cycling in post-reclamation mine soils remains poorly understood. This study measured microbial biomass and soil respiration, as well as bulk soil total organic carbon, total …