Soil and plant characteristics of landfill sites near Merseyside, England

An ecological survey of the plant and soil characteristics was carried out on three landfill sites near Merseyside, England. It was discovered that bare ground at two of the landfill areas had high levels of methane contained in the soil air (Sefton Meadows landfill: 6-8% at 35 cm and 16-35% at 65 cm below soil surface; Coalgate Lane landfill: 1-24% at 35 cm and 39-45% at 40 cm below soils surface), causing the appearance of dark grey reduced regions in the soil, a phenomenon similar to flooded soil. The wellvegetated areas at the two sites had lower levels of methane (under 7%). In areas relatively free of methane, the concentrations of mineralized N and NO₃^- had significant correlations with the dry weights of vegetation (r = 0.71 with p<0.01;r=0.61 with p<0.02 accordingly), indicating the necessity of applying available nitrogen fertilizer.