Aquatic and Littoral Successions in Various Post‐Mining Sites—Patterns and Possible Use in Ecological Restoration

ABSTRACT Vegetation succession in aquatic and littoral habitats has received much less attention than terrestrial habitats have. We sampled differently aged successional stages at five different types of post‐mining sites, that is, sandpits, stone quarries, clay quarries, brown coal spoil heaps and black coal subsidences, across the Czech Republic, Central Europe. They ranged in age since creation from 1 to 89 years. The chronosequence approach was adopted. The succession was described based on plant species identity and selected life‐history traits of these species. Alongside vegetation data, the effects of environmental variables, namely age, water depth, pH, conductivity, elevation, area and substratum type (mainly the proportion of organic material) on vegetation development were analysed. Altogether, 254 vascular plant species and 7 charophytes were identified. The types of mining sites differed in species composition and number of species per plot with the littorals of sandpits being the most species‐rich habitat. The water table was one of the main driving factors alongside age and accumulation of organic material. The successional stages (young, middle, late) significantly differed in their vegetation composition in littoral habitats in sandpits and in aquatic habitats of sandpits and brown coal spoil heaps only. The succession of littoral vegetation prevailingly runs towards more compact vegetation dominated by tall perennial graminoids, while aquatic vegetation was mostly characterised by random occurrence of species and partly affected by accumulation of nutrients in later stages. Spontaneous succession in aquatic and littoral habitats leads to valuable semi‐natural vegetation and can thus be considered to be a reliable restoration method of such post‐mining sites in Central Europe.