Diversity of Cyanobacteria and Algae During Primary Succession in Iron Ore Tailing Dumps

Abstract

The extraction of commercial minerals is often accompanied by the formation of large areas of quarry and dump technogenic ecosystems. This stimulates the search for measures to reduce their negative impact on the environment, as well as a detailed study of all the constituent elements of ecosystems that spontaneously or after reclamation form on them. Primary stages of syngenesis on the tailing dumps of iron ore mines in Kryvorizhzhia took place involving cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae. The dynamics of the community structures of algae and cyanobacteria depends on the mineralogical composition of tailings, salinity conditions, pH, and content of particles of physical clay and humus. The assessment of the features of the dynamics of algae communities was carried out based on the ordination procedure because of the method of non-metric multidimensional scaling. The considered environmental variables were statistically significant predictors of community structure and could explain 47-90% of the variation in measurements. Diagnostic signs of the species composition of communities of algae and cyanobacteria tailing dumps were established by physical and chemical parameters. An increase in the content of physical clay particles in the substrate and a pH shift towards the alkaline side increased the species richness of cyanobacteria, while an increase in the humus content increased the total species diversity. Based on the specificity of the type of growth and the species composition of algae communities, when describing the primary successions, it is proposed to allocate the following stages of development of algae and cyanobacteria communities: dispersal aerophyton, stratose epilitophyton, algal crust, mixed moss and algal crust, and edaphone.

Keywords: Algae; Cyanobacteria; Land reclaiming; Mining and metallurgical production; Succession.