Land reclamation after coal mining is essential for the sustainability of that environment. This study aimed to evaluate the structural quality of a soil built up under different cover crops, taking a soil built up without cover crops and natural soil under native vegetation across from the mining operation as references. It may be concluded that cover crops, especially Tanzania (Panicum maximum), contributed to improvement of the structural quality of the built-up soil, reducing bulk density and increasing macroporosity, total porosity, total organic carbon content and the average diameter of stable aggregates. More studies are needed with a focus on aggregation, tensile strength of aggregates and friability since the way in which the soils are built up affects their structural quality.
Bulk density; soil porosity; structural quality; organic carbon
