Revegetation of artificial grassland improve soil organic and inorganic carbon and water of abandoned mine

Mining and related activities caused plant productivity and soil carbon content reduced in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Soil carbon plays an essential role in ecosystem stability. Soil carbon and associated changes in soil property were important drivers and indicators of ecosystem recovery at post-mining areas. We selected 5, 10 and 20 years of restoration lands to examine the effect of artificial grassland on vegetation community and soil property. Results showed that artificial grassland markedly increased the biomass, canopy coverage and soil carbon content, but decreased soil bulk density and soil water content. After 10-year of restoration, both the biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC) content reached the peak, however, soil bulk density and soil water content arrived the lowest at depth of 0-20 cm and got the highest at depth of 20-30 cm. At 20-year of restoration land, the biomass (above-and belowground) and SOC content (0-30 cm) significantly decreased by 46.2 % and 67.0 % with compared to 10-year of restoration land, while soil bulk density of 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depths increased by 7.8 % and 21.4 %, respectively, soil water content (0-30 cm) increased by 11.6 %. It was evident that artificial grassland as an effective ecological restoration approach could improve soil physic-chemical property, while properly anthropogenic perturbations were also needed to stimulate plant growth.