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Abstract
Sites disturbed by mining were surveyed in the Czech Republic, central Europe. The sites included spoil heaps from coal mining, sand and gravel pits, extracted peatlands and stone quarries. The following main conclusions emerged: i) potential for spontaneous succession to be used in restoration projects is between 95 and 100% of the total area disturbed; ii) mining sites, if mining is properly designed and then the sites are left to spontaneous succession, often act as refugia for endangered and retreating organisms, and may contribute substantially to local biodiversity.
Acknowledgements
We especially thank the following participants in the seminar for a fruitful discussion and providing some information without which the presented summary would not be possible: Tomáš Gremlica, Pavel Kovář, Vladimír Melichar, Ota Rauch, Lubomír Tichý, and Robert Tropek. The work was partly supported by the following grants: IAA600050702, MSM6007665801, AVOZ60050516 and DBU AZ26858-33/2. We thank Keith Edwards for language revision and reviewers for their comments.