Affiliation:
1. Academy of Biology and Biotechnology after D.I. Ivanovsky of the Southern Federal University
Abstract
An attempt has been made to assess the effectiveness of remediation of the tailing’s storage facility of a mining enterprise for the performance of ecosystem functions by a formed soil-like body in comparison with the background soil for this territory. To assess the biological properties of the soil-like body, the following were analyzed: the total number of bacteria, the abundance of bacteria of the genus Azotobacter, the activity of soil catalases and dehydrogenases, germination, and length of radish roots. An integral indicator of the state of the soil-like body was calculated for a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of tailings pond reclamation. It was found that the soil-like body of the reclaimed tailings dump performs its ecosystem functions as fully as the background mountain meadow chernozem soil for this territory. It is concluded that the reclamation works were carried out effectively with the restoration of the ecosystem.