Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/3709
Title: Estimating the Unknown Components of Nutrient Mass Balances for Forestry Plantations in Mine Rehabilitation, Upper Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia
Contributor(s): Mercuri, Amanda (author); Duggin, John Alexander  (author); Daniel, Heiko  (author); Lockwood, Peter Vincent  (author); Grant, Carl (author)
Publication Date: 2006
DOI: 10.1007/s00267-004-0245-0
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/3709
Abstract: Commercial forestry plantations as a post-mining land use in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia are restricted by both the poor nutrient availability of mining substrates and low regional rainfall. An experiment was conducted to investigate whether municipal waste products and saline groundwater from coal mining operations could improve early tree growth without impacting on the environment through salt accumulation and/or nutrient enrichment and changes in groundwater quality. Potential impacts were investigated by quantifying the nutrient cycling dynamics within the plantation using an input–output mass balance approach for exchangeable calcium (Ca²⁺), exchangeable magnesium (Mg²⁺), exchangeable potassium (K⁺), exchangeable sodium (Na⁺), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Measured inputs to and outputs from the available nutrient pool in the 0–30 cm of the overburden subsystem were used to estimate the net effect of unmeasured inputs and outputs (termed 'residuals'). Residual values in the mass balance of the irrigated treatments demonstrated large leaching losses of exchangeable Ca, Mg, K, and Na. Between 96% and 103% of Na applied in saline mine-water irrigation was leached below the 0–30-cm soil profile zone. The fate of these salts beyond 30 cm is unknown, but results suggest that irrigation with saline mine water had minimal impact on the substrate to 30 cm over the first 2 years since plantation establishment. Accumulations of N and P were detected for the substrate amendments, suggesting that organic amendments (particularly compost) retained the applied nutrients with very little associated losses, particularly through leaching.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Environmental Management, 37(4), p. 496-512
Publisher: Springer New York LLC
Place of Publication: United States of America
ISSN: 1432-1009
0364-152X
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 050305 Soil Physics
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 829899 Environmentally Sustainable Plant Production not elsewhere classified
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article

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