TY - JOUR
T1 - Modelling regional ecological security pattern and restoration priorities after long-term intensive open-pit coal mining
AU - Wang, Zhenyu
AU - Luo, Keyu
AU - Zhao, Yuhao
AU - Lechner, Alex M.
AU - Wu, Jiansheng
AU - Zhu, Qingliang
AU - Sha, Wei
AU - Wang, Yanglin
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 42130505 ) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation ( 2020M680248 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/8/20
Y1 - 2022/8/20
N2 - Long-term intensive open-pit mining can have huge impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide, affecting the integrity of ecosystem structures, functions and process and thus the “ecological security” of a whole mining region. The indirect and direct impacts of mining are spatially and temporally complex and therefore ecological security patterns need to be considered. However, to date there has been little research focusing on ecological security patterns in mining regions. This study aims to model and map ecological security and restoration priorities in an intensive open-cut coal mining region accounting for spatio-temporal changes of multiple ecosystem services. Four ecosystem services including habitat quality, carbon sequestration, water yield, and sediment retention were assessed and mapped in 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. Next ecological security patterns and restoration priorities were modelled and characterized using the Self-Organizing Feature Map to identify ecological sources, and circuit theory in Linkage Mapper to characterize connectivity and flows. The results showed that habitat quality, carbon sequestration, and water yield services were most affected by vegetation cover changes due to mining exploitation, while sediment retention was influenced by multiple natural factors, especially topography. Ecological sources, corridors, pinch-points and barriers showed various changing trends due to mined and built-up land expansion over time. Ecological source area declined from 1355.08km2 in 2000 to 584.92 km2 in 2020, while the number of corridors increased from 17 in 2000 to 25 in 2010 and then decreased to 21 in 2020. Although restoration has been conducted on some mine sites, regional-scale restoration needs greater consideration. This study provides decision-makers and stakeholders with a method for assessing regional-scale ecological security and restoration in a holistic and systematic way moving beyond a single mine, which is critical for balancing ecological security protection with minerals production in intensive mining regions.
AB - Long-term intensive open-pit mining can have huge impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide, affecting the integrity of ecosystem structures, functions and process and thus the “ecological security” of a whole mining region. The indirect and direct impacts of mining are spatially and temporally complex and therefore ecological security patterns need to be considered. However, to date there has been little research focusing on ecological security patterns in mining regions. This study aims to model and map ecological security and restoration priorities in an intensive open-cut coal mining region accounting for spatio-temporal changes of multiple ecosystem services. Four ecosystem services including habitat quality, carbon sequestration, water yield, and sediment retention were assessed and mapped in 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020. Next ecological security patterns and restoration priorities were modelled and characterized using the Self-Organizing Feature Map to identify ecological sources, and circuit theory in Linkage Mapper to characterize connectivity and flows. The results showed that habitat quality, carbon sequestration, and water yield services were most affected by vegetation cover changes due to mining exploitation, while sediment retention was influenced by multiple natural factors, especially topography. Ecological sources, corridors, pinch-points and barriers showed various changing trends due to mined and built-up land expansion over time. Ecological source area declined from 1355.08km2 in 2000 to 584.92 km2 in 2020, while the number of corridors increased from 17 in 2000 to 25 in 2010 and then decreased to 21 in 2020. Although restoration has been conducted on some mine sites, regional-scale restoration needs greater consideration. This study provides decision-makers and stakeholders with a method for assessing regional-scale ecological security and restoration in a holistic and systematic way moving beyond a single mine, which is critical for balancing ecological security protection with minerals production in intensive mining regions.
KW - Ecological security pattern
KW - Ecosystem service
KW - Mined landscape change
KW - Mining region
KW - Restoration
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129392617&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155491
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155491
M3 - Article
C2 - 35476946
AN - SCOPUS:85129392617
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 835
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 155491
ER -