Abstract Book – 18 th Alps-Adria Scientifc Workshop 138 Dominant plant species are the drivers of postindustrial sites ecosystem functioning Karolina RYŚ 1 – Agnieszka BŁOŃSKA 1 – Wojciech BIERZA 1 – Franco MAGURNO 1,2 – Gabriela WOŹNIAK 1 1: Department of Botany and Nature Protection; Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Silesia in Katowice, Jagiellońska 28, 40-032 Katowice, Poland; E-mail: gabriela.wozniak@us.edu.pl 2: Centre of Mountain Environmental Technologis, Hołcyna 219, 43-438 Brenna, Poland Keywords: dominant plant species, mass ratio hypothesis, coal mine spoil heaps, novel ecosystem, vegetation succession Introduction The vegetation developing systems that emerge on habitats recognized as novel ecosystems of Anthropocene (Hobbs et al. 2006), such as post-industrial sites, can be an opportunity to understand the links between the clue ecosystem elements like the dominant plant species and the abiotic and biotic substrate (anthroposols) conditions (Waters et al. 2016). Dominant species infuence both vegetation as well as soil properties such as soil seed bank properties of the soil substrate. However, knowledge about the role played by dominant species in the process of shaping their habitat within post-industrial ecosystems is limited. Some study on dominant plant species has also been conducted on many habitats including post-industrial sites (Prach and Pyšek 1999, Woźniak 2010) and these studies have mostly been focused on the species composition that accompanies the dominant plants on a range of diferent types of post-industrial sites. The vegetation growing on coal mine spoil heaps consists of a mosaic of patches dominated by various species confned to a variety of microhabitats (Woźniak et al. 2015, Rawlik et al. 2018a, Rawlik et al. 2018b). We aimed to assess the role of some dominant species, expressed as their infuence on soil substratum abiotic and biotic properties, and to assess the dominant species role in novel ecosystem function development. Materials and methods In the studies plots we have assessed the dominant species and the accompanying species biomass. We have assessed the above ground biodiversity by using various diversity indicators. We have measured soil chemistry, including the content of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous potassium as well as sodium and magnesium content, conductivity, pH and enzyme activities as well as PLFA, species diversity and functional diversity of vegetation for each species studied. Results and discussion The spontaneous vegetation developing on post-industrial sites infuenced both species and functional composition, as well as the chemical and biological properties of soil substratum. The primary vegetation types (plots dominated by Tussilago farfara) had the highest infuence on post-industrial site habitats on coal mine heaps and the extreme values of some soil substratum parameters. The decrease of species and functional diversity of vegetation has been also recorded. The parameters of rhizosphere substrate samples under the dominant plant species has revealed diferences in soil substratum organic matter doi: 10.34116/NTI.2019.AA.60