Methods of Vegetation Study

The Vegetation of Wisconsin, an Ordination of Plant Communities.

Saccharum spontaneum L. is a perennial tall grass and invades naturally abandoned and pastoral lands in many tropical countries. Although it is a potentially multiple-use and multifunctional species, it remains neglected and underutilized. It is commonly known as ‘Wild cane’ in English and ‘Kans’ in Hindi. In recent years, S. spontaneum has attracted serious attention for its potential in ecological restoration. The present paper deals with geographic distribution, ecology, morphological description, multiple uses, restoration potential, and propagation of this species. We also report the suitability of S. spontaneum for the restoration and stabilization of bare fly ash (FA) dumps. In this context, the highest importance value index, visual observations and practitioner insights reveal that S. spontaneum has great ability to grow on bare FA dumps and can be used as an ecological tool in restoration of vast tracts of fly ash dumps across the world. Besides grass vegetation study, we also report the change in physicochemical properties of abandoned site and compared with naturally colonized site with S. spontaneum of FA dumps to assess its ecological suitability for restoration of bare FA dump. Overall, the field results showed that S. spontaneum is a promising and potential tall grass for the restoration of FA dumps.

Saccharum spontaneum: an underutilized tall grass for revegetation and restoration programs

Strip-mining operations greatly disturb soil, vegetation and landscape elements, causing many ecological and environmental problems. Establishment of vegetation is a critical step in achieving the goal of ecosystem restoration in mining areas. At the Shouyun Iron Ore Mine in suburban Beijing, China, we investigated selective vegetation and soil traits on a tailings dam 7 years after site treatments with three contrasting approaches: (1) soil covering (designated as SC), (2) application of a straw mat, known as “vegetation carpet”, which contains prescribed plant seed mix and water retaining agent (designated as VC), on top of sand piles, and (3) combination of soil covering and application of vegetation carpet (designated as SC+VC). We found that after 7 years of reclamation, the SC+VC site had twice the number of plant species and greater biomass than the SC and VC sites, and that the VC site had a comparable plant abundance with the SC+VC site but much less biodiversity and plant coverage. The VC site did not differ with the SC site in the vegetation traits, albeit low soil fertility. It is suggested that application of vegetation carpet can be an alternative to introduction of topsoil for treatment of tailings dam with fine-structured substrate of ore sands. However, combination of topsoil treatment and application of vegetation carpet greatly increases vegetation coverage and plant biodiversity, and is therefore a much better approach for assisting vegetation establishment on the tailings dam of strip-mining operations. While application of vegetation carpet helps to stabilize the loose surface of fine-structured mine wastes and to introduce seed bank, introduction of fertile soil is necessary for supplying nutrients to plant growth in the efforts of ecosystem restoration of mining areas.

Assessment of Vegetation Establishment on Tailings Dam at an Iron Ore Mining Site of Suburban Beijing, China, 7 Years After Reclamation with Contrasting Site Treatment Methods

Considering biomass production on marginal lands as one of the important ways for climate change mitigation, ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation and livelihood, the development of high-diversity tall perennial grass-based biomass production system is getting special attention. Although such grasses (e.g., Arundo donax L., Desmostachya bipinnata L. Stapf., Panicum antidotale Retz., Saccharum species, Vetiveria zizanioides L.) are widely distributed in India and naturally grow on marginal lands without external inputs, these are neglected and underutilized. On the other hand, similar species like Panicum virgatum L. and Miscanthus × giganteus Greef and Deuter ex Hodkinson and Renvoize are significantly contributing in bioenergy production in the USA, Europe and Australia. The unavailability of appropriate plant species that can be grown on marginal lands for consistent biomass production, restoration of soil fertility and to support several socioeconomic and ecological services has shifted the attention of policy makers more toward solar and wind energy than bioenergy as evident from India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC 2015). It is, therefore, important to identify appropriate plant species which produce high biomass in various stressful environments without intensive agricultural inputs and have a range of ecological services. This review, therefore, briefly provides information on biomass and bioenergy production, ecological restoration, biodiversity conservation, environmental remediation and cultural perspectives of various tall perennial grasses those are otherwise neglected and underutilized so far in India in the lack of primary research. The major research gaps and opportunities for developing multifunctional cropping systems involving these grasses for harnessing various economic and ecological services have also been identified.

Biomass production from neglected and underutilized tall perennial grasses on marginal lands in India: a brief review

Vegetation composition of different age series sponge iron solid waste dumps was analyzed with respect to the impact of top soil application on vegetation succession. Study revealed that freshly laid dump, without top soil cover was devoid of any vegetation. However, 1, 3 and 5 year old dumps were colonized by grasses, sedges, forbs and shrubs. Tree species could be recorded in 3 and 5 year old dumps, but were absent in 1 year old dump. In all the dumps, species belonging to forbs showed the highest percentage contribution to species composition which was followed by grasses. Common occurrence of certain plant species in all the dumps indicated their greater adaptability to the adverse condition of waste material. IVI of herbaceous plants gradually decreased with dump age which was replaced by occupation of shrub and tree species in older dump. Among the families, Poaceae dominated in all the dumps. Species richness and diversity showed increasing trend, where as dominance showed decreasing trend with increasing dump age. Patch with top soil cover always showed highest species richness, followed by mixed patch and lowest by the patch only with waste material. The study revealed that top soil acted as seed bank and its application on sponge iron s olid waste du mp positively contributed towards species richness and vegetation growth.

Vegetational Succession on Different Age Series Sponge Iron Solid Waste Dumps with Respect to Top Soil Application

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Vegetational Succession on Different Age Series Sponge Iron Solid Waste Dumps with Respect to Top Soil Application