Abstract
Reclamation of disturbed soils is done with the primary objective of restoring the land for agronomic or forestry land use. Reclamation followed by sustainable management can restore the depleted soil organic carbon (SOC) stock over time. This study was designed to assess SOC stocks of reclaimed and undisturbed minesoils under different cropping systems in Dover Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio (40°32·33′ N and 81°33·86′ W). Prior to reclamation, the soil was classified as Bethesda Soil Series (loamy‐skeletal, mixed, acid, mesic Typic Udorthent). The reclaimed and unmined sites were located side by side and were under forage (fescue—Festuca arundinacea Schreb. and alfa grass—Stipa tenacissima L.), and corn (Zea mays L.)—soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) rotation. All fields were chisel plowed annually except unmined forage, and fertilized only when planted to corn. The manure was mostly applied on unmined fields planted to corn, and reclaimed fields planted to forage and corn. The variability in soil properties (i.e., soil bulk density, pH and soil organic carbon stock) ranged from moderate to low across all land uses in both reclaimed and unmined fields for 0–10 and 10–20 cm depths. The soil nitrogen stock ranged from low to moderate for unmined fields and moderate to high in some reclaimed fields. Soil pH was always less than 6·7 in both reclaimed and unmined fields. The mean soil bulk density was consistently lower in unmined (1·27 mg m^−3^ and 1·22 mg m^−3^) than reclaimed fields (1·39 mg m^−3^ and 1·34 mg m^−3^) planted to forage and corn, respectively. The SOC and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations were higher for reclaimed forage (33·30 g kg^−1^; 3·23 g kg^−1^) and cornfields (21·22 g kg^−1^; 3·66 g kg^−1^) than unmined forage (17·47 g kg^−1^; 1·98 g kg^−1^) and cornfield (17·70 g kg^−1^; 2·76 g kg^−1^). The SOC stocks in unmined soils did not differ among forage, corn or soybean fields but did so in reclaimed soils for 0–10 cm depth. The SOC stock for reclaimed forage (39·6 mg ha^−1^ for 0–10 cm and 28·6 mg ha^−1^ for 10–20 cm depths) and cornfields (28·3 mg ha^−1^; 32·2 mg ha^−1^) were higher than that for the unmined forage (22·7 mg ha^−1^; 17·6 mg ha^−1^) and corn (21·5 mg ha^−1^; 26·8 mg ha^−1^) fields for both depths. These results showed that the manure application increased SOC stocks in soil. Overall this study showed that if the reclamation is done properly, there is a large potential for SOC sequestration in reclaimed soils. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.