Effect of restoration on ecosystem services (microbial diversity & soil health)
Student name: Mr Rahul Kumar
Guide: Dr Sudipta Chatterjee
Year of completion: 2018
Host Organisation: TERI School of Advanced Studies
Abstract: The study area under the research project is restored coal mine which is part of
Muraidih mine in Jharkhand, India. After the degradation of the land it was restored
by TERI University (TERI SAS). The degradation of land often results in affecting
the ecosystem services of the area. This thesis aims to take two indicators for ES: soil
health & microbial diversity and tries to ascertain the changes in these two due to coal
mining by comparing the restored and degraded area. Microorganisms play a very
important role in restoration of such degraded land. They help in stabilizing soil,
fixing nutrients for the plants and constitutes a genetic resource pool. Soil microbial
study was chosen because of its importance as a substrate for the plant growth. This
study has been done by using conventional methods of culture of microorganisms on
differential and selective media. Sanger technique & metagenomics has also been
used to find out the complete microbial profile of the degraded and restored land. The
parameter for quantification on traditional method is colony forming unit.
