Phosphorus and iron erosion from non-vegetated sites in a post-mining landscape, Lusatia, Germany: Impact on aborning mining lakes

Particulate phosphorus (P) can be transported via soil erosion in overland flow to waters, where it provides a long-term source of P for aquatic biota, and can accelerate freshwater eutrophication. Hence, knowledge of P sources is important for good environmental management. However, data on P, and related Fe, losses from various structures of a post-mining landscape are lacking. A year-long monitoring, and ten short rainfall simulations on plot scale, at ridges and rills and a combination of them, revealed high erosion from bare lignite mining dumps at Schlabendorf-North, Lusatia, Germany. The mean annual soil erosion rate from the year-long monitoring site was 18 × 106 kg km− 2 yr− 1, corresponding to 0.034 g m− 2 min− 1. The erosion rates were lowest at rill plots (1.9–4.4 g m− 2 min− 1), intermediate at ridge plots (14.3–37.1 g m− 2 min− 1), and highest at a combined rill and ridge plot (48.7–63.4 g m− 2 min− 1). These differences in extent were due to small scale differences in morphology and extreme water repellency. The hydrophobicity leads to very low infiltration, thus generating surface runoff even at low rainfall intensities. Loss rates of P and Fe, as deduced from the year-long erosion rate, were 470–650 kg km− 2 yr− 1, and 37.9 × 103–71 × 103 kg km− 2 yr− 1 respectively. However, these P inputs from lignite mining dump erosion, consisting of P-poor (17–90 μg g− 1) tertiary spoil materials, into aborning mining lakes, are negligible since they are accompanied by high Fe inputs, which favour an efficient P co-precipitation in the water column.