The long‐term effects of underground mining on the growth of tree, shrub, and herb communities in arid and semiarid areas in China

Abstract

Underground mining (as opposed to open‐cast) often causes large‐scale subsidence, leading to various types of disturbances to surface vegetation. Adequate quantitative assessment of the long‐term effects of underground mining on the growth of different plant communities is important and still lacking. To address these issues, a vegetation growth contract model (VGCM) was proposed, and six indicators including the growth trend (GT), annual growth (AG), normalized spectrum entropy (Hsn), as well as the average value of annual‐average normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI; ANDVIave), annual‐maximum NDVI (ANDVImax), and annual‐minimum NDVI (ANDVImin) were selected. The long‐term effects of underground mining (EM) on the herb, shrub, and tree communities in the Nanjiao mining area, China, from 1987 to 2017 were evaluated. The results show that the plant communities, which maintained the same type in the areas influenced and not influenced by mining, accounting for 48.07% and 46% of the total area, respectively. As for these plant communities, underground mining had a significant negative effect on the AG, ANDVIave, and ANDVImax of both the herb and tree communities, while it had a positive effect on the GT and Hsn of the shrub community. Overall, underground mining had a negative effect on these three types of plant communities, and the EMs of the herb, tree, and shrub communities were −15.10, −6.79, and −4.03%, respectively. This research could provide a reference for evaluating the long‐term effects of mining activities on vegetation, and also give more insights into the effects of underground mining on different plant communities.

Detecting long-term effects of mining-induced ground deformation on plant patterns in semi-arid areas using a cellular automata model

“…In the Yugang mining area, six kinds of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) based indicators were proposed to represent the changes in the plant communities under the long-term effects of underground mining. Average decreases of 15.10%, 6.79%, and 4.03% in these indicators were reported for the herb, tree, and shrub communities, respectively (Mi et al, 2021). These studies revealed that the effects of mining-induced ground deformation on plants could be comprehensive, and there could be great differences in the responses of various plant communities to ground deformation on a long time scale.…”

Using unmanned aerial vehicle multispectral data for monitoring the outcomes of ecological restoration in mining areas

“…This may be the heightened sensitivity of the NDVI to seasonal variations, rainfall, vegetation phenology, and other environmental factors that impact biodiversity (Madonsela et al, 2018; Pau et al, 2012). Consequently, using vegetation cover or the NDVI as the primary criterion for evaluating restoration effectiveness may require further evaluation regarding validity as a tool for regulatory monitoring standards (Han et al, 2021; Hoffmann, 2022; Madonsela et al, 2018; Mi et al, 2021).…”

Chlorophyll a fluorescence as a tool to monitor physiological status in the leaves of Artemisia ordosica under root cutting conditions

“…One of the most important ecological and environmental issues that western China mining areas are facing is vegetation deterioration ( Liu et al., 2021a ). The damage to surface vegetation caused by coal mining subsidence in semi-arid mining areas is currently the subject of extensive research ( Mi et al., 2021 ). Researchers have found useful monitoring techniques as well as principles governing the temporal and spatial patterns of surface vegetation disturbance in such subsidence areas ( Bian et al., 2020 ; Liu et al., 2020 ; Liu et al., 2021a ).…”