Improvement of Low-Fertility Soils from a Coal Mining Subsidence Area by Immobilized Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria

Abstract

Coal mining subsidence leads to reductions in soil fertility. In order to improve soil physical and chemical properties and to promote vegetation restoration, a nitrogen-fixing bacterium named S1 was isolated from the coal mining subsidence area in the Shendong mining area, and a zeolite-immobilized nitrogen-fixing bacterium was studied to improve the soil in the subsidence area. The results show that the immobilized nitrogen-fixing bacteria can significantly improve the ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen of soil by 50 times and 0.6 times, respectively, at 20 days, and it can also improve organic matter. In pot experiments, it was found that immobilized microorganisms can improve germination rate, plant height and the dry and fresh weight of maize. The results of the above soil culture tests and pot experiments were then compared and analyzed. It was found that plants made obvious use of soil ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen, and planting the plants was conducive to increases in soil organic matter.