Full text

Turn on search term navigation

© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Long-term coal mining in the Muli coal mine area of Qinghai Province has degraded soil quality and reduced microbial diversity, making it imperative to implement effective ecological restoration measures to restore soil quality and enhance ecosystem functions. This study evaluated soil samples under 11 ecological restoration treatments using metagenomic sequencing combined with soil quality analysis to explore the responses of the microbial community structure and function to identify effective restoration measures. This study demonstrated that ecological restoration significantly increased the soil microbial diversity and richness, with the MLII1 (soil samples treated with a chemical weathering agent, attapulgite, and a microbial agent) and MLIII1 (soil samples treated with sheep manure (2.4 kg/m2), granular organic fertilizer (1.2 kg/m2), and the microbial agent) treatment groups performing exceptionally well. Further analysis of the functional networks revealed that although the MLII2 (soil samples treated with the chemical weathering agent and attapulgite) treatment group did not exhibit the highest species diversity, it exhibited the highest functional network complexity. The results of hierarchical clustering analysis showed that the microbial community of the MLII2 treatment group was most similar to that of the natural meadows compared to the other treatment groups. From the perspective of overall ecological restoration, this study concluded that the MLII2 treatment group exhibited the most favorable ecological restoration outcomes. This finding emphasizes the importance of not only enhancing microbial diversity but also prioritizing the restoration of community functions, especially for the recovery of fragile high-altitude ecosystems.

Details

Title
Metagenomic Insights into Coal Slag Remediation Effects on Soil and Microbial Health in Qinghai’s Muli Coal Mine
Author
Lin, Qi 1 ; Pan, Yang 1 ; Zhang, Yongbei 2 ; Zhang, Wenfei 1 ; Wu, Hongping 1 

 Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou 571158, China; [email protected] (Q.L.); [email protected] (P.Y.) 
 Hainan Beiou Bio-Energy Development Co., Ltd., Haikou 570100, China; [email protected] 
First page
2222
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20762607
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3133340108
Copyright
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.