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The way of disposing of rock mineral material has a significant impact on subsequent spontaneous vegetation succession, soil properties, and respiration. We compared seven spontaneously vegetated samples from a large (2 km2) borrow pit used to dispose of the byproducts of a hard coal mine with seven plots from four coal mine spoil heap piles. We used BIOLOG EcoPlates to assess the microbial catabolic activity of the substrate. The substrate in the borrow pit was characterized by higher water content and lower temperature compared to the heap pile substrate. The borrow pit had a more diverse plant community structure. Higher Rao’s quadratic entropy, functional richness, and functional divergence were also calculated from plant functional traits in borrow pit samples. Although borrow pit samples showed higher total microbial biomass, bacteria/fungi ratio, and gram+/gram− ratio, and heap pile samples showed higher soil enzymatic activity, microbial functional diversity, and catabolic activity, these differences were not significant. Soil respiration from the borrow pit substrate was two folds higher. The borrow pit method of disposing of rock mineral material can be suggested to speed up spontaneous vegetation succession. This research provides new insights into the effects of burying hard coal byproducts in borrow pits and offers guidance for the management of hard coal mining.

This article summarizes studies of soil enzymatic activity in novel ecosystems, particularly mineral post-mining sites. The potential role of soil enzymatic activity in novel ecosystems spontaneously re-established on post-mining sites in the management activity. Soil enzymes are crucial for nutrient cycling, including carbon cycling. This needs consideration in the novel ecosystem functions that develop on post-mining sites and the ecosystem services that this ecosystem can provide. Soil enzymes, including dehydrogenases, phosphatases, and urease, are analyzed to understand their role in organic matter cycling. The research emphasizes the impact of vegetation on enzyme activity, highlighting the intricate relationships between plants, microorganisms, and soil properties. The aim of this study is to review the current study results concerning the enzymatic activity in the mineral post-mining substratum as a tool for vegetation diversity and novel ecosystem functioning assessment. The performed review and bibliometric analysis reveal the growing interest in soil enzyme research across various scientific disciplines. However, a more specialized subset of articles focusing on soil enzyme activity in mineral post-mining sites indicates a need for targeted investigation. The study contributes to our understanding of the complex interplay between novel ecosystem’s functioning processes, vegetation, and soil enzyme activity, providing insights into the less-explored habitat type of mineral post-mining sites.

The primary producers and processes of matter and energy flow, reflected by the soil enzyme activity, are the basics of all ecosystem functioning processes. This paper reviews the relationships between the plant diversity, the physicochemical substrate parameters, and the soil enzymatic activity in novel ecosystems of the urban–industrial landscape, where the factors driving soil enzyme activity are not fully understood and still need to be studied. The relationship between the biotic and abiotic factors in the development of novel ecosystems on de novo established habitats, e.g., sites of post-mineral excavation, are shaped in ways unknown from the natural and the semi-natural habitats. The main criteria of de novo established ecosystems are the vegetation patches of the non-analogous species composition created as a result of human impact. The non-analogous species assemblages are associated with different microorganism communities because the biomass and the biochemistry of soil organic matter influence the enzyme activity of soil substrates. Moreover, the soil enzyme activity is an indicator that can dynamically reflect the changes in the microbial community structure dependent on the best-adapted plant species, thanks to the particular traits and individual adaptive adjustments of all the plant species present. This way, soil enzyme activity reflects the sum and the interactions of the elements of the ecosystem structure, irrespective of the vegetation history and the habitat origin.