Effects of Soil Amendments on Carbon-Based Indicators of Ecosystem Recovery in Revegetated Mine Soils: Integrating Labile Carbon, Soil Organic Carbon, and CO₂ Flux

Five soil-amendment treatments were evaluated: Untreated control; Lime + Manure (L+M); Lime + Manure + Woodchips (L+M+W); Lime + Manure + Biochar (L+M+B); and Lime + Manure + Biochar + Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (L+M+B+AMF), arranged across 15 revegetation plots.

Three response variables are provided: (1) in-situ soil CO₂ flux, measured with a LI-8100A soil gas flux system across 45 collars over a 17-week monitoring period (14 successful measurement events; 630 observations); (2) permanganate-oxidizable carbon (POXC), a labile carbon fraction determined by the Weil method; and (3) soil organic carbon (SOC). POXC and SOC were measured on 45 end-of-season composite soil samples (three subsamples per plot).