biology Article Vegetation and Environmental Changes on Contaminated Soil Formed on Waste from an Historic Zn-Pb Ore-Washing Plant Oimahmad Rahmonov 1 , Jerzy Cabala 1, * and Robert Krzysztofik 2   Citation: Rahmonov, O.; Cabala, J.; Krzysztofik, R. Vegetation and Environmental Changes on Contaminated Soil Formed on Waste from an Historic Zn-Pb Ore-Washing Plant. Biology 2021, 10, 1242. https:// doi.org/10.3390/biology10121242 Academic Editor: Maria Amélia Martins-Loução Received: 12 November 2021 Accepted: 24 November 2021 Published: 27 November 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Institute of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia, B ˛ edzi ´ nksa 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland; oimahmad.rahmonov@us.edu.pl 2 Institute of Social and Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia, B ˛ edzi ´ nska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland; robert.krzysztofik@us.edu.pl * Correspondence: jerzy.cabala@us.edu.pl Simple Summary: Remnants of former Zn-Pb mining in southern Poland are an important element of geographical space. Some of the post-mining areas have found new economic and residential functions. Many of them are undergoing ecological succession and constitute valuable natural habitats enriching biodiversity of the surrounding landscapes. There are places where we can observe and document various ecological and geochemical transformations in its historical and contemporary aspects. These changes provide a basis for observing and functioning of ecosystems developing in an area transformed under the influence of Zn-Pb mining. Abstract: Post-mining waste from Zn-Pb ore exploitation undergoes processes of spontaneous suc- cession and changes in soil chemical composition. The Zakawie area was industrially transformed by historical mining activity, ore enrichment, and the metallurgical processing of Zn-Pb ore. The subject of the study was to analyse the rate of vegetation succession (from 1999 to 2019), soil chemistry, and the relationships between them in an anthropogenic habitat with high concentrations of potentially toxic metals. Ecological and geochemical studies were carried out in an area contaminated with waste from a disused Zn-Pb ore-washing plant. Between 1999 and 2019, the transformation of grassland and meadow vegetation into scrub and forest–grassland communities was observed. This transformation led to a decrease in the area of Molinietum caeruleae meadow (from 25.8% in 1999 to 10.7% in 2019), whose place was taken by Prunus spinosa and Rhamnus cathartica. The commu- nity of xerothermic limestone grasslands completely disappeared, being replaced in favour of the Diantho-Armerietum and Prunus spinosa community. In this period, the share of lifeforms of plants and species composition (46 and 60, respectively) also changed. The Shannon and Simpson biodiversity index reached high values in the second investigation period, and it was 0.893 and 0.86, respectively. The anthrosols had a high content of Zn—85,360 mg kg −1 , Pb—28,300 mg kg −1 , Cd—340 mg kg −1 , and As—1200 mg kg −1 . Carbonates, clay minerals, and fe-oxides are predominant in the mineral composition of the rhizosphere; the metal-bearing phases are stable; and hardly soluble minerals include smithsonite, cerussite, monheimite, hemimorphite, and oxides of Fe and Fe-Mn. Mineralisa- tion/crust processes formed on the epidermis, and their influences on root development were found. Scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy studies on rhizosphere soil components provide information on the type of minerals and their susceptibility to heavy metals release. The identification of some biotic and mineral structures in rhizospheres can be an interesting source of information on pedogenic processes identified in back-scattered electron images. Keywords: vegetation succession; rhizosphere geochemistry; mining activity; historical pollution; landscape degradation 1. Introduction From the 12th century, silver-rich lead ore was mined in the Silesia-Kraków region in southern Poland (Cabala et al., 2020). In the 19th century, the growing demand for Zn Biology 2021, 10, 1242. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology10121242 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/biology