The aim of research was to determine plant biological productivity of rock disposal dump of coal mines to present a comparative description of their aboveground and underground mass, identify patterns indicating promising developments of techniques and technologies of phytorecultivation. In terms of productivity factor (equal to 3.90) plant communities of dumps rank below crop plants with agrophytocenosis (winter rye – 6.50), but prevail over perennial field (alfalfa field – 0.90) and virgin steppe communities (0.03). The data show that under the environmental conditions of waste dumps of coal mines phytocenoses root system operates with greater productivity in comparison with other steppe and field species. The following regularities of plant biomass formation are revealed: grass canopy of plant groups form small biological products – from 74.0 to 139.0 grams per square meter, above-ground part – from 62.1 to 103.8 grams per square meter. The characteristic feature for all grass canopies of rock disposal dumps of coal mines is that almost half of phytomass consists of plant stems. The predominance of herbage stalks in biomass of grass canopy in rock disposal dump indicates the pioneering nature of their vegetation. More than half of the aboveground phytomass is formed on the lower levels of plant communities (up to 10 cm). The revealed regularities point to the necessity of changing their productivity towards increasing biological production by developing effective methods and technologies of phytorecultivation.
Keywords: phytorecultivation, plants biological production, mines rock disposal dumps, phytomass distribution, productivity factor.
