Ecological Engineering 84 (2015) 233–239 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Ecological Engineering jo ur nal home p age: www.elsevier.com/locate/ecoleng Development of canopy cover and woody vegetation biomass on reclaimed and unreclaimed post-mining sites Jan Frouz a,b,∗ , Petr Dvorˇ sˇ cík a , Alena Vávrová a , Olga Douˇ sová a , ˇ Stˇ epánka Kadochová b,c , Luboˇ s Matˇ ejíˇ cek a a Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benátská 2, CZ12800 Prague, Czech Republic b Institute of Soil Biology, Biology Centre ASCR, Na Sádkách 7, CZ37005 ˇ Ceské Budˇ ejovice, Czech Republic c Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Na Sádkách 7, CZ12800 Prague, Czech Republic a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 23 May 2015 Received in revised form 12 July 2015 Accepted 4 September 2015 Keywords: Woody vegetation cover Succession Reclaimed sites Tree biomass Aerial photographs a b s t r a c t On an open-cast coal mining heap in the northwestern Czech Republic, development of the canopy cover of woody vegetation was studied using historical aerial photographs of unreclaimed sites overgrown by natural succession and of sites reclaimed by the planting of alder. A comparison of sites by general linear models revealed that canopy cover did not differ significantly between reclaimed sites and unre- claimed sites. Dominant species on unreclaimed sites (Salix caprea and Populus tremula) and reclaimed sites (Alnus glutinosa) sites were destructively sampled to generate site-specific allometric equations. Trees and shrubs were counted and measured on 5-, 19-, 15-, and 45-year-old reclaimed and unreclaimed sites. When sites were 5 years old, tree density was much higher on reclaimed sites (7575 trunks ha -1 ) than on unreclaimed sites (1215 trunks ha -1 ). On reclaimed sites, tree density gradually decreased with site age and was equivalent to that on unreclaimed sites when sites were 45 years old (1675 trunks ha -1 ). Woody biomass did not significantly differ between reclaimed and unreclaimed sites when measured across all ages but did significantly differ when measured at specific ages: thus, woody biomass was greater on reclaimed sites than on unreclaimed sites at age 5 years but was greater on unreclaimed sites than on reclaimed sites at age 25 years. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Open-cast coal mining causes massive disturbance to ecosys- tems, which are either removed by excavation or buried by the large amount of substrate located above the coal layers (the “overbur- den”), which is excavated and deposited in soil heaps before coal is extracted (Frouz et al., 2001; Helingerová and Frouz, 2010). Ecosys- tem restoration of soil heaps is essential for their socioeconomic recovery (Bradshaw, 1997). Converting post-mining land to forest has been assumed to be a sensible way of restoration (Zeleznik and Skousen, 1996). Forest reclamation has been frequently performed as part of restoration in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe (Frouz et al., 2001, 2013a,b; Pietrzykowski and Krzaklewski, 2007; Pietrzykowski, 2014). During restoration, the site is usually leveled by earthmoving machinery, and trees are then planted. In some cases, topsoil is also added, and herbaceous species are established ∗ Corresponding author at: Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benátská 2, CZ12800 Prague, Czech Republic. E-mail address: frouz@natur.cuni.cz (J. Frouz). (Frouz et al., 2001, 2013a; Zeleznik and Skousen, 1996). In many places, however, spontaneous re-growth of forest vegetation has occurred on post-mining land (Frouz et al., 2007; Frouz et al., 2008; Mudrák et al., 2010; Pietrzykowski, 2008; Skousen et al., 1994). Although several studies have compared have compared inverte- brate and herb species diversity or soil development on reclaimed sites (with planted trees) and unreclaimed sites (with sponta- neous establishment and succession of vegetation) (Frouz et al., 2008; Hendrychová et al., 2012; Holec and Frouz, 2005; Mudrák et al., 2010; Pietrzykowski, 2008; Skousen et al., 1994), few studies have compared woody biomass and woody biomass production on reclaimed and unreclaimed sites (Poland and Gorman et al., 2001; Pietrzykowski and Krzaklewski, 2007). Woody biomass is important from an economic perspective (the wood is eventually harvested and sold) but also from an environ- mental perspective in that the forests that produce wood provide many ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, which is correlated with tree biomass (Barford et al., 2001; Fahey et al., 2010; Frouz et al., 2013a). The goal of reclamation is to establish plant cover and associated ecosystem services (e.g., reduced soil erosion and improved soil development) more quickly. Although http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2015.09.027 0925-8574/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.