Restoration techniques affect soil organic carbon, glomalin and aggregate stability in degraded soils of a semiarid Mediterranean region

Abstract

The first step to restoring degraded mine soils from calcareous quarries in semiarid environments, usually without soil structure, mainly consists in creating a structured topsoil with suitable physical, chemical and biological properties. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of organic amendments and mulches on soil aggregate stability and aggregation-associated soil characteristics, six years after beginning experimental restoration in the Gádor Mountains (Almería, SE Spain). Experimental plots were set up to test two organic amendments (sludge and compost) and two mulches (gravel and woodchip) and their respective control plots. Soil samples from neighboring undisturbed soils were used as the quality reference threshold. The tested variables were total organic C (TOC), glomalin-related soil protein (GRSP), easily extractable glomalin-related soil protein (EE-GRSP) and water aggregate stability evaluated by both wet sieving (WS) and water-drop test (WDT). Relationships among the measured soil properties were checked in order to assess the best indicators for the most suited restoration practices. After 6 years, the results showed that the combination of organic amendments and mulches enhanced soil aggregate stability and the content of aggregate binding agents such as TOC and glomalin. Nevertheless, the role of organic amendments, especially compost, was more important than mulch treatments in increasing TOC and glomalin, showing the closest values to the undisturbed reference soils (over 30 g kg−1 for TOC and 3.5 g kg−1 for GRSP). Despite the considerable improvement in water stable aggregates found in sludge-amended plots (average mean weight diameter of 2.13 mm in WS, and 25-drop impacts in WDT), the reference soils provided the highest values (average mean weight diameter of 3.32 mm in WS, and 99-drop impacts in WDT). The lack of a good correlation between soil structure-related variables restricted the evaluation of the real effects of restoration treatments, and suggested considering other soil properties (e.g., hydrophobicity, hardening) associated to aggregate stability.