The stone quarry – a vital piece of nature
For many years, it was the first option to re-fill clay pits, quarries and surface mines. Nature protection aimed at restoring the pre-exploitation landscape. Now it is common knowledge that abandoned pits gradually become reserves for animals and plants that otherwise disappear from our strongly exploited agricultural landscape. Thus, quarries transform into valuable secondary habitats, even when the noisy stone crushing machines are still thudding. This is a positive development the industrial association Industrieverband Steine und Erden Baden-Württemberg supports and approves of.
Hence, the yellow bellied toad is becoming a common quarry denizen since its original spawning puddles on dirt roads disappeared under tarmac surfaces. Frogbit and bulrush, newts and tree frogs appear as soon as water accumulates in warm and shallow ponds. Where large open pit mines exist, the little ring plover runs along the gravel banks. Even big eagle owls or peregrine falcons nest in the steep walls of many Muschelkalk quarries. Stonecrop and orchids grow on dry quarry slopes that provide shelter for the thermophilic wall lizard.
Hence, if you revisit a closed down quarry over the years, you can see how nature recaptures it step by step and how something new develops – a vital piece of nature.
The ecological succession commences when a stone quarry is shut down. Here, stonecrop and other succulent plants have already covered the bare limestone beds.
The earliest pioneer plant settling on fresh quarry dumps is coltsfoot. Its yellow blossoms appear in early March, long before the leaves.
When succession proceeds, flowering wild carrots and viper’s bugloss attract various insects. Photo: Magnus K. Hagdorn
Stone piles in the quarry dumps provide dens and food for the mural lizard. The climatic change enables the thermophilic reptile to capture this new habitat. Photo: Magnus K. Hagdorn
On sparsely covered slopes and clay pit dumps, which are rapidly warmed up, iridescent tiger beetles hunt for spiders and insects. Photo: Magnus K. Hagdorn
In a temporary puddle the succession commences with frogbit and arrowhead. In summer, such puddles fall rapidly dry and fill again during the next rainfall. On the muddy ground, a network of desiccation cracks is left. Photo: Magnus K. Hagdorn
Puddles become pools when there is constantly enough water. Then the succession brings bulrush and reed. Photo: Magnus K. Hagdorn
The yellow-bellied toad prefers warmed up water in puddles and shallow ponds because there are no competing fishes.
Pools and puddles are valuable habitats of amphibians and insects, the larvae of which are developing within water. In the summer dragonflies like the broad-bodied chaser are buzzing and resting on elevated stones. Photo: Magnus K. Hagdorn
Quarry Künzelsau-Garnberg, Panorama Magnus Hagdorn