Purpose

The underground mining of coal leads to land subsidence and changes agricultural land into a water-logged area. This study aims to examine the relationship between coal mining subsidence and crop failure in plains with a high underground water table.

Methods

The Dongtan Coal Mine in Jining City of Shandong Province in China was selected as an example. Samples were gathered at gradient intervals based on the strike, dip, and angular bisector directions. The spatial variability and spatial correlation were analyzed by combining classical statistics and geostatistics.

Results

The order of the coefficient of variation in each parameter was as follows: the available phosphorus > available potassium > leaf area index (LAI) > biomass > soil moisture content > chlorophyll content (SPAD) > soil organic matter (SOM) > alkaline nitrogen (AN) > bulk density > elevation. Except the biomass had moderately spatially dependent, the other parameters all exhibited a strongly spatially dependent. At the level of 0.01, the correlation coefficient between SOM and AN was 0.67. The correlation coefficients relating biomass with SPAD and LAI were 0.70 and 0.69, respectively, and between SPAD and LAI was 0.68. The correlation coefficients between distance and altitude, distance and biomass, and altitude and biomass are 0.95, 0.67, and 0.65, respectively.

Conclusion

Coal mining leads to stretching and deformation of the ground, land subsidence, and changes in the physicochemical properties of the soil. In this case, the yield of aboveground crops is poor, but under the influence of external factors such as irrigation and breeding, the threat of coal mining to crop growth has been reduced.