Modeling Ecosystem Development on Blast-Furnace Slag Dumps in a Tropical Region

A deterministic mathematical model for ecosystem development on slag dumps has been formulated and based on five components of the ecosystem—soil total nitrogen, plant biomass, plant cover, soil moisture, litter, and soil fine particles. Nitrogen and soil moisture, which regulate vegetation development on the slag dumps, have been used as the driving parameters of the model. The numerical results obtained from the model were compared with the field values estimated in five sites representing an age series of 5 to 40 years. The percentage deviation between the model and field values at the end of 40 years was less than 16%, except in the case of silt and clay, which was less than 44%. Unlike earlier published ecosystem models dealing mostly with steady-state systems, this model deals with an ecosystem evolving from a bare and sterile substratum and can be used to predict changes in various components in the slag dump ecosystem.