SOC content—An appropriate tool for evaluating the soil quality in a reclaimed post-mining landscape

The new post-mining landscape of a waste rock dump is an ideal candidate for a carbon sink area. A quantitative evaluation of soil organic carbon (SOC) can provide information on the quality of the reclaimed post-mining landscape.The sampled sites in the older part of the Velká Podkrušnohorská dump were used for determining SOC and basic physical and chemical soil characteristics, e.g. cation exchange capacity (CEC), bulk density (ρ), pH, soil sorption capacity (S), total nitrogen content (TN) and sand grain (G). The sites are situated either on grassland (agricultural reclamation), or at the various age classes of deciduous or coniferous forest (forest reclamation), or on areas of both initial and advanced succession stages (natural reclamation).A statistically significant relation between SOC and the basic pedological parameters was identified. A positive correlation was observed for CEC, S and TN values. A negative correlation was determined for pH and bulk density. The positive correlation between SOC and coarse grain, and the negative correlation between SOC and fine grain, are interesting findings. The calculated Cpool ranged from 1.3 kg m−2 (young forest) to 4.7 kg m−2 (old forest), 5.4 kg m−2 (natural succession), respectively. The point-related Cpool values were transformed to a carbon map, which can serve as a tool for evaluating reclamation quality.