Abstract: Natural vegetation succession process and related mechanism is one of the important research contents in ecological restoration of abandoned mining land. Taking 4 lead-zinc tailings deposited sites with the recovery time being about 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and over 40 years under similar site conditions in northwest Guizhou Province as study areas, this paper studied the interactions between the natural vegetation succession and the physicochemical properties of waste residue. The results showed that with the increasing dumping time of the waste residue, the nutritional conditions of base material improved significantly,  the total N, P, and K contents and the pH value increased, while the EC, bulk density, and especially, available lead and cadmium contents decreased. Meanwhile, the plant community species richness (S), diversity index (H), and
evenness (J) increased correspondingly with increasing recovery time. The composition of plant communities was dominated by perennial herbaceous. In the first 20 years of recovery, the vegetation succession process was very slow, but after 30- and 40-year recovery, the vegetation coverage reached 53% and 87%, respectively. Canonical correlation analysis showed that there were significant correlations between base material properties and species diversity, and the canonical variables were the total N, P, and K contents of base material. The species diversity index was significantly negatively correlated with the available Pb and Cd contents of base material. The natural vegetation succession process in the study areas accelerated after 30 years of recovery, and the limiting factors of vegetation recovery were the nutrient deficiency and the high availability of Pb and Cd in base material.

Key words: lead-zinc tailings deposited site, base material, physicochemical property, natural vegetation succession, species diversity, Nemopilema nomurai, jellyfish decomposition, biogenic element recycling, release rate.