The Berzdorf brown-coal-mining district is situated
in the hill landscape of the Upper Lusatia (eastern
Germany; Fig. 1) with an average annual precipitation
of 650–700mm and a yearly mean temperature
of 8–8.5 1C. Here, we studied the colonisation of an
initially sterile substratum. The geological overburden
consists mainly of Pleistocene and Tertiary
sands, interspersed with lignite and dark Tertiary
loam and clay.