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. 2021 Jul 28;11(1):15368.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-94806-0.

Influence of coal gangue mulching with various thicknesses and particle sizes on soil water characteristics

Xiu-Na Han  1 , Ying Dong  1 , Yu-Qing Geng  2 , Na Li  1 , Chao-Ying Zhang  1
Affiliations

Influence of coal gangue mulching with various thicknesses and particle sizes on soil water characteristics

Xiu-Na Han et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Water availability seriously affects vegetation restoration in arid mining areas, and mulching is an effective way to improve soil water conditions. Coal gangue occupies large swathes of land resources, resulting in ecological fragility and various environmental problems. Despite coal gangue having mineral elements similar to those in soil, its potential function as a mulch for soil water conservation has been unclear. Herein, mulching on the surfaces of soil columns with 30 cm height and 15 cm inner diameter was conducted using coal gangue with four particle size ranges (0-0.5, 0.5-1, 1-2, and 2-4 cm) and four thicknesses (4, 8, 12, and 16 cm) under laboratory conditions to investigate water infiltration and evaporation under different conditions. The cumulative infiltration of the treatments with mulching thicknesses of 4 cm (T1), 8 cm (T2), 12 cm (T3), and 16 cm (T4) was 16.1%, 22.9%, 28.6%, and 41.6% greater than that of the control, respectively. The cumulative evaporation of the treatments with particle size ranges of 0-0.5 cm (P1), 0.5-1 cm (P2), 1-2 cm (P3), and 2-4 cm (P4) was 6.5%, 28.6%, 22.9%, and 18.6% lower than the control, respectively. Overall, to enhance the soil water storage capacity in mining areas, the results suggest that coal gangue mulching with a thickness of 8-16 cm and particle size range of 0.5-2 cm is suitable.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Dynamic variations in cumulative infiltration for different treatments. CK is control treatment without mulched coal gangue. P1, P2, P3, and P4 represent the treatments of four different particle sizes of coal gangue, 0–0.5 cm, 0.5–1 cm, 1–2 cm and 2–4 cm, respectively. T1, T2, T3, and T4 denote the mulch thickness of coal gangue is 4 cm, 8 cm, 12 cm and 16 cm, respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Dynamic variations in cumulative evaporation for different mulch layer thicknesses. CK is control treatment without mulched coal gangue. P1, P2, P3, and P4 represent the treatments of four different particle sizes of coal gangue, 0–0.5 cm, 0.5–1 cm, 1–2 cm and 2–4 cm, respectively. T1, T2, T3, and T4 denote the mulch thickness of coal gangue is 4 cm, 8 cm, 12 cm and 16 cm, respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Hierarchical cluster analysis of the water characteristics of the different treatments. The Roman numerals in the figure indicate that all the treatments is divided into four categories according to the Euclidean distance as 10.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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