Zero Year Soil Carbon Contents of Reclaimed Minesoils

Sriroop Chaudhuri, Louis M. McDonald, Mark Sperow and Jeff Skousen

West Virginia University

 Concern about increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels has led to research on terrestrial carbon pools and fluxes. One terrestrial system of interest is reclaimed mine soils. Little published literature documenting the carbon accumulation estimates on reclaimed mine lands are available and virtually no data is available for baseline (year zero) carbon contents. We sampled soils on an operating surface mine that had sections of freshly placed top soil (year 0) and sections that had been reclaimed for one and two years, respecively. Each section was grid sampled at two depths. Total carbon, nitrogen and sulfur were determined as was the active carbon fraction. The spatial variability in each section will be quantified. Soil carbon accumulation rates will be determined and soil carbon contents compared to nearby undisturbed soils.