Cover Crops and Mycorrhizal Inoculation Restore Former Limestone Mine Ecosystems

Image: article cover, from Retno (2016), Jurnal Wasian, licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.

A research team from the Makassar Forestry and Environment Research and Development Centre has found that planting cover crops followed by trees inoculated with mycorrhiza accelerates the recovery of former limestone mining land. Published in the Journal Wasian in 2016, the study assessed land recovery through the presence of small soil fauna, or soil mesofauna, which are sensitive to human disturbance and play a role in ecological processes.

The research was conducted on four types of former limestone mining land: open land without planting, land with cover crops, planted land without mycorrhizal inoculation, and planted land with mycorrhizal inoculation. The results showed that individual density, diversity and species richness of soil mesofauna were higher on the cover-cropped land and the mycorrhizal-planted land than on the other land types. The presence of the Formicidae family (ants), which dominated both of these land types, and the appearance of the Acari group (mites) only on the mycorrhizal land, were also markers of the recovery of the limestone mining land.

These findings are important because they show that revegetation efforts cannot be judged solely by the plants growing above ground. Life within the soil, which underpins fertility and nutrient cycles, is also a measure of the success of restoring former mining land. For communities living near forests and mining land, the cover crop and mycorrhizal seedling approach can be a relatively inexpensive way to begin restoring degraded land.

Source and how to cite

This story is based on the research article Soil Mesofauna Response to Cover Crops and Mycorrhizal Inoculated Plantation on Limestone Quarry Revegetation by Retno Prayudyaningsih Retno, published in Jurnal Wasian Vol. 3 No. 1 (2016). The full article is free to read on the Jurnal Wasian website.

Cite the original article (APA 7):

Retno, R. P. (2016). Soil Mesofauna Response to Cover Crops and Mycorrhizal Inoculated Plantation on Limestone Quarry Revegetation. Jurnal Wasian, 3(1), 01–08. https://doi.org/10.62142/bx5xpx96

If you use these findings in coursework, a thesis or other writing, cite the original article above, not this news story. The original article is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0.