Understanding how soil fertility changes due to environmental conditions and stand-age-dependent forest attributes is important for local-scale forest restoration. We evaluated the effects of stand-age-dependent forest attributes (plant community composition and litter stock) on soil and technosol fertility across two second-growth Atlantic forests (SGF) after the deposition of mining tailings in Mariana, southeastern Brazil. We hypothesized that technosol fertility in the SGF tailings is positively affected by plant community composition variability, stand age, and litter stock. We used total exchangeable bases and organic matter as fertility indicators for technosol and soil, and species composition and litter stock as stand-age-dependent forest attributes. Our results showed significant differences in the stand-age-dependent forest attributes and soil chemical properties between the two forest patches (SGF tailing and SGF non-tailing) evaluated. Thus, there was a marked gradient of litter storage and fertility between soil and technosol that can be important forest recovery indicators for the affected plant communities. Furthermore, according to the tested models, we corroborated the hypothesis that technosol fertility is positively affected by stand age, plant community composition variability, and litter stock, which may contribute considerably to forest recovery on tailings. Our results demonstrate that the fertility predictors analyzed to explain the forest recovery on tailings can also be considered as ecological indicators for assessing forest restoration in areas impacted by mining tailings in Mariana.

了解土壤肥力如何因环境条件和林龄相关的森林属性而发生变化，对于当地规模的森林恢复非常重要。在巴西东南部马里亚纳的采矿尾矿沉积后，我们评估了林龄相关的森林属性（植物群落组成和枯枝落叶存量）对两个第二次生长的大西洋森林 (SGF) 土壤和技术土壤肥力的影响。我们假设 SGF 尾矿中的 technosol 肥力受到植物群落组成变异性、林龄和枯枝落叶存量的积极影响。我们使用总可交换碱和有机质作为技术土壤和土壤的肥力指标，将物种组成和枯枝落叶存量作为林龄相关的森林属性。我们的结果表明，所评估的两个森林斑块（SGF 尾矿和 SGF 非尾矿）之间的林分相关森林属性和土壤化学性质存在显着差异。因此，土壤和技术土壤之间的凋落物储存量和肥力存在显着梯度，这可能是受影响植物群落的重要森林恢复指标。此外，根据测试模型，我们证实了这样的假设，即技术土壤肥力受到林龄、植物群落组成变异性和枯枝落叶存量的积极影响，这可能对尾矿的森林恢复有很大贡献。