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Bradshaw 1984
Bradshaw 1984
A.D. BRADSHAW
Botany Department, University of Liuerpool, Liverpool L69 3BX (Ct. Britain)
(Accepted for publication 30 September 1983)
ABSTRACT
Bradshaw, A.D., 1984. Ecological principles and land reclamation practice. Landscape
Plann., 11: 35-48.
Any landfill or other reclamation site will revegetate naturally given time. What
happens naturally may seem to be the province of the naturalist, and little to do with
the practical steps which have to be taken when we want to hasten the revegetation
process artificially, which many will think is the province of the landscape architect
and engineer. Yet these two processes are indissolubly linked, because they are both
the outcome of the interaction between the ecological characteristics of the site and
the natural requirements of plants. We cannot get effective reclamation unless we un-
derstand the ecology of the site and of the materials we want to use.
This can best be illustrated by a detailed examination of the revegetation of any
distinctive type of waste material. On china clay waste, natural revegetation is very
slow, and earlier attempts to revegetate it artificially failed. Yet because of the nature
of soil/plant ecosystems, all this is due to one major problem - lack of plant nutrients,
especially nitrogen - which can be overcome simply and economically by a combina-
tion of chemical and biological techniques.
It may appear that all sites are unique, and that to ensure success elaborate solu-
tions will always be required. It is true that to achieve elaborate endpoints rapidly,
extensive manipulations may be required, but a survey of different sites shows that
it k when proper ecological understanding is combined with appropriate technology,
that effective and self-maintaining end products are produced economically.
INTRODUCTION
The aim of the land reclamation we are considering in this paper, and
indeed the aim of most reclamation, is to re-establish some sort of vege-
tation cover on a degraded land surface. The particular sort of vegetation
cover will depend on the nature of the site and economic and social pres-
sures, but whatever vegetation is to be established, we must realise that
the process of establishment is not like laying tarmac or cement. Although
in all of these operations care must be taken to prepare the site or the
substructure, the final constructions are totally different. Tarmac and
concrete are inert and lie inertly on what is beneath them; vegetation is
living and depends for its sustenance and growth on what is beneath it,
MAN-CLIMATE
with ecosystem function and structure as the 2 axes (Fig. 2). Natural eco-
system development, or succession, then involves moving from a simple
state in the bottom left towards a more complex state in the top right.
The reclamation processes can be placed on the same graph. The various
different types of reclamation can then be differentiated. Restoration
involves putting back what was there previously as completely as possible;
rehabilitation involves progressing towards this, but achieving only partial
success. Often, no attempt will be made to restore what was present; in-
stead there is replacement of the original ecosystem by another different
one. Finally, there can be neglect, which may lead to normal succession
or, if the site is liable to erosion or some other wasting process, to further
degradation. This model is a development of those of Magnuson et al.
(1980) and Cairns (1982).
ecosystem
function
replacement
ORIGINAL
ECOSYSTEM
,eplacement
--
7 development
Or DEGRADED ECOSYSTEM
ecosystem
structure
species and complexity
Fig. 2. The process of ecosystem development.
TABLE I
Species found on alkali wastes in N.W. England which probably colonized from coastal
sand dunes 30-40 km away (from Bradshaw, 1983a)
of Table II. The crucial source of nitrogen is from the activities of nitrogen
fixing micro-organisms on the roots of legume species such as clover and
lupin, and on a few other species such as alder (Alnus glutinosa). These
can cause the accumulation of 50-150 kg N ha- ’ year- ’ in the plant and
the soil. The effect of such species on surrounding vegetation can be quite
remarkable. Not only do the species themselves grow at a remarkable speed,
but as soon as the accumulated nitrogen is released, the surrounding vege-
tation begins to grow (Palaniappan et al., 1979).
Other nutrients cannot be accumulated in this manner. Small quanti-
ties fall in rain (Dennington and Chadwick, 1978), but the main source
must be the weathering of the soil minerals. The rate of supply is there-
fore very dependent on the nature of the materials themselves, both in
terms of their nutrient content and the rate at which they weather. The
material may also cause some nutrients to be locked up in insoluble form,
as is phosphorus in calcareous materials. This may itself affect the esta-
blishment of legumes, with their beneficial effects on nitrogen accumula-
tion. As a result, natural processes of ecosystem development can be very
slow in some materials and relatively fast in others, due to differences
in nutrient supply.
Examples of sites where colonisation is exceedingly slow are the cal-
40
TABLE II
’ 9%content taken from Perkins (1978) for hill grassland; could differ somewhat in other
vegetation.
’ From Rodin and Baziievich (1967).
careous waste heaps of N.W.England. After 100 years, the heaps have still
only a sparse herbaceous vegetation cover (less than 100%) and there are
only a few slow-growing scattered bushes, due almost entirely to a serious
phosphorus deficiency because of phosphorus binding. By contrast, on
china clay wastes in Cornwall, woodland dominated by oak (Quercus pe-
trea) has developed in the same length of time, with a progressive accu-
mulation of nitrogen, due mainly to the leguminous species gorse (Uex
europaeus) and broom (Cytisus scoparins) (Roberts et al., 1981). This
is matched by the development of aspen (Populus tremuloides) woodland
on iron ore spoil banks in Illinois (Leisman, 1957).
In some situations, other factors may operate to restrict colonisation.
Heavy metals can be so toxic in older non-ferrous wastes that they can
prevent anything but scattered vegetation establishment for 100 years.
In colliery spoil, high levels of pyrite causing extreme acidity dominate
and restrict the process of colonisation. On slate waste heaps and other
quarry wastes, the extreme physical texture can again prevent any coloni-
sation at all for 100 years (Bradshaw and Chadwick, 1980).
In some situations, very slow natural ecosystem development is an ad-
vantage, since tree and shrub growth is restricted and the vegetation remains
open. Competition is reduced and the site can be a refuge for rare plants.
We have recently become aware that quarries and similar sites can be im-
portant for the conservation of our native flora (Ratcliffe, 1974). The
treatments that are then required are discussed by Gemmell(1983).
However, in most situations the rapid development of a fairly substan-
41
SOIL REPLACEMENT
Since the problems of derelict and degraded land lie in the soil, the
most obvious course of action is to remove the soil from the area to be
disturbed, store it briefly, and then replace it. This option is now becoming
required more often by planning authorities, but it is not without its pro-
blems. These have been discussed by MacRae (1983).
When topsoil has been lost or disposed of earlier, it may seem obvious
10
a untreated
10
1;:
C
number
of
samples
5
I
DIRECT TREATMENT
TABLE III
Physical
Structure Too compact Rip or scarify Vegetation
Too open Compact or cover Vegetation
with fine material
Stability Unstable Stabilizer/mulch Regrade or vegetation
Moisture Too wet Drain Drain
Too dry Organic mulch Vegetation
Nutrition
Macronutrients Nitrogen Fertilizer Legume
Others Fertilizer + lime Fertilizer + lime
Micronutrients Fertilizer -
Toxicity
PH Too high Pyritic waste or Weathering
organic matter
Too low Lime Lime
Heavy metals Too high Organic mulch or Inert covering or metal-
metal-tolerant tolerant cuitivar
cuI tivar
Salinity Too high Weathering or irrigate Tolerant species or
cultivar
4 000
weight second
year
eld
ha” 1
first
year
nil P K PK N NP NK NPK
Fig. 4. Grass yields, following the application of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium
to poorly growing grass established on colliery spoil (Bloomfield et al., 1982). (An-
nual treatment: N 50 kg ha-‘; P 22 kg ha-‘; K 42 kg ha-‘. In the second year, yields
without retreatment are shown blank).
N ha-’ will not nearly supply the amount of nitrogen capital required,
particularly since much of it will have gone to develop the living plant
biomass.
The exact capital required will be affected by the nutrient requirements
of the developing vegetation and the organic matter decomposition rate,
both of which can vary (Bradshaw, 1983a), but observations on natural
and artificial ecosystems suggest that these values are of the right magni-
tude. The absolute minimum appears to be about 1000 kg N ha-’ (Marrs
and Bradshaw, 1982). In which case there is a serious need to increase
nitrogen inputs into the reclamation operation. This can be done by in-
creasing the fertiliser input, but to add only 1000 kg N ha-’ extra - the
minimum amount required - will cost $600 ha-‘, with spreading costs
extra. Since the spreading would have to be done over a number of years,
these could be another 6200 ha”‘.
A more economical alternative is to follow natural processes and to
include an appropriate legume, such as white clover (7’rifolium repens),
in grassland or tree lupin (Lupinus arboreus) in woodland. These can con-
tribute to the developing ecosystem over 100 kg N ha-’ year-’ even on
very poor materials, which is quite remarkable (Dancer et al., 1977, Jef-
feries et al., 1981a) (Table IV). At the same time, the organic matter they
produce has a high C:N ratio and decomposes readily, releasing the accu-
mulated nitrogen (Lanning and Williams, 1979, Jefferies et al., 1981b).
They have their own requirements for other nutrients; clover, particularly,
has a requirement for calcium and phosphorus, but these can be provided
at low cost, because calcium in the form of ground limestone is cheap,
and the total phosphorus requirement is likely to be about l/10 that of
nitrogen and can be supplied in not more than two applications.
45
TABLE IV
Net nitrogen fixation by legumes grown on sand waste (from Dancer et al., 1977)
LANDSCAPE OBJECTIVES
TABLE V
Possible after-uses associated with various types of quarry workings, based on their
physical characteristics
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