Abstract
Coal is an important energy resource in the world, especially in China. Extensive coal exploitation seriously damaged the grassland and its fragile ecosystem. However, temporal and spatial impact laws of open-pit coal exploitation on Landscape Ecological Health (LEH) of semi-arid grasslands are still not clear. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to study impact of Large-scale Open-pit Coal Base (LOCB) on the LEH of semi-arid grasslands from the perspectives of temporal and spatial. Taking Shengli LOCB of Xilinguole grassland in Inner Mongolia as an example, we demonstrate a conceptual model of LOCB impact on LEH of semi-arid grasslands, and establish a research system called landscape Index-pattern Evolution-Driving force-Spatial statistics (IEDS). A complete process integrated from investigation, monitoring, and evaluation to the analysis of impact laws was developed. Result indicated that coal mining causes gradual increase of landscape patches, landscape fragmentation, gradual decline of landscape connectivity, complexity and irregularity of landscape shape, enhancement of landscape heterogeneity and complexity, gradual decline of landscape stability, gradual decrease of grassland landscape and annual increase of unhealthy grassland landscape. The LEH of grassland basically belongs to the state of slight deterioration. In the past 15 years, the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of LEH in the study area are similar. This study provides scientific reference for ecological disturbance research, environmental protection, landscape planning, restoration and renovation of ecological environment in mining areas. At the same time, future research should integrate geological, hydrological, soil, vegetation, microorganisms, animals, climate, and other perspectives to study the impact of mining on landscape ecology deeply.
Highlights
Coal is the most important energy resource in China [1]
Comprehensive application of 3S (Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System, Global Navigation Satellite System) technology to quickly obtain and accurately analyze basic data to dynamically monitor macro-Landscape Ecological Health (LEH) status became an important direction of a quantitative assessment of LEH
Taking Shengli Large-scale Open-pit Coal Base (LOCB) of Xilinguole grasslands as an example, the conceptual model of the impact of LOCB on LEH of semi-arid grasslands was presented in this paper
Summary
Coal is the most important energy resource in China [1]. Since economic reform and expansion, the demand for mineral and fossil fuel resources is growing due to China’s social and economic development. Mining activities have caused a wide range of significant impacts on the landscapes in China [6,7], and in Europe [4,8,9,10,11,12], Asia [13,14,15,16], Americas [17,18,19], Africa [20,21], and Oceania [22,23] It follows that large-scale coal exploitation activities, often lead to severe disturbances of regional landscape ecology. As a temporary large-scale project developed to satisfy human needs, on landscape ecology is difficult to accurately identify, both in time and space. If the impact of mining activities on landscape ecology can be identified, cost of human, material, and financial resources in the process of ecological restoration can be greatly reduced, which will eventually help to achieve more satisfactory ecological benefits
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