Abstract: Soil properties, species composition, and plant community structure were examined in three different opencast mines of Shengli Coal Mining area. Redundancy analysis and cluster analysis were used to examine the relationship between soil properties and plant communities. The soil fertility of the research area was evaluated using gray correlation analysis. The results showed that: (1) The impact of opencast coal mining on soil water content was complicated. Soil water content of the west second mine and the east second mine decreased by 1.9% and 14.0% respectively, but the west third mine increased by 63.6%. Soil nutrients in the opencast area were lost compared with the control area, and the total potassium and available nitrogen contents were significantly reduced by 6.3% and 47.2%, respectively. (2) Species richness in the opencast mining area was declined by 26.3%-57.9% and the importance value of the dominant species decreased. The richness index and diversity index of plant community were significantly declined, and the grassland turned into aridification and degradation. (3) There was high correlation between soil properties and species diversity indices. The concentrations of total potassium and available potassium were the key factors determining plant community structure. (4) Soil fertility far from the opencast mining sites was better than that near the sites. Therefore, the influence of opencast coal mining on soil fertility was within a certain range around the mining sites.

Key words: climate scenarios, yield improving potential., climate productivity change, influencing factors, maize