Disturbed Lands Research Articles

Slope aspect of a mountainous grassland landscape shapes the structure of an encroaching shrub (Euryops floribundus N.E. Br): insights from communal grazing sites located at varying distances from rural homesteads

Mountainous grassland landscapes are severely threatened by the proliferation of shrub encroachment. So far, it remains unclear though how slope aspect coupled with land disturbances linked to the proximity of homesteads to communal grazing sites affects the distribution, density and structure of the encroaching shrubs in these grassland ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the role that slope aspect plays in determining the density and structure of an encroaching shrub species Euryops floribundus N.E. Br in three communal grazing sites located at varying distances from rural homesteads in a semi-arid mountainous grassland in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Three sites were strategically chosen in Cala communal grazing lands in an encroached mountainous grassland landscape that depicted north and south-facing slope aspects. The selected sites were Tsengiwe; a site located in close proximity to homesteads at a distance of less than 100 m, Upper Mnxe situated at an intermediate distance ranging from 200 to 800 m away from homesteads and Manzimdaka, which was located furthest from homesteads at a distance greater than 1600 m. In each site and corresponding slope aspect, the density and structure of the shrub E. floribundus were evaluated on 36 randomly distributed plots, yielding a total of 108 plots across all sites. We found that shrub density was significantly higher (50%) on the north-facing slope compared to the south-facing slope in Tsengiwe, the site located near homesteads. Shrub height was significantly higher (53 and 17%) on the north-facing slope compared to the south-facing slope at Upper Mnxe and Manzimdaka, which were located at intermediate and furthest distances from the homesteads. Notably, shrub height was significantly lower (37%) in the north-facing slope compared to the south-facing slope in Tsengiwe. Following a similar pattern to shrub height, total stem number was significantly higher (20 and 85%) in the north-facing slope compared to the south-facing slope at Upper Mnxe and Tsengiwe, respectively. Shrub crown area was higher (33 and 11%) in the north-facing slope compared to the south-facing slope at Upper Mnxe and Manzimdaka, respectively. A strong positive relationship was established between the height of shrubs and their longest crown diameter, shortest crown diameter and shrub crown area across all sites, suggesting that the investigated shrub species E. floribundus employs its structural characteristics to survive, and thrive and this was more evident in the north-facing slope. The results highlight the importance of considering the proximity of homesteads into account in ecological studies, and puts emphasis on improved understanding of the vegetation patterns shaped by shrub encroachment in mountainous grasslands, which is crucial in the development of effective land management strategies.

Potential Interactions between Climate Change and Land Use for Forest Issues in the Eastern United States

Applying an interaction framework, we examined whether climate change and combined land use and disturbance changes were synergistic, antagonistic, or neutral for forest issues of wildfires, tree growth, tree species distributions, species invasions and outbreaks, and deer herbivory, focused on the eastern United States generally since the 1800s and the development of instrumental records (1895). Climate largely has not warmed during 1981–2020 compared to 1895–1980, but precipitation has increased. Increased precipitation and land use (encompassing fire exclusion and forestation, with coarse fuel accumulation due to increased tree densities) have interacted synergistically to dampen wildfire frequency in the humid eastern U.S. For overall tree growth, increased precipitation, carbon fertilization, and land use (i.e., young, fast-growing dense stands) likely have been positive, generating a synergistic interaction. Human activities created conditions for expanding native tree species distributions, non-native species invasions, and damaging native species outbreaks. No strong evidence appears to exist for recent climate change or land use influences on deer populations and associated herbivory levels. In the future, a warmer and effectively drier climate may reverse synergistic and neutral interactions with land use, although effects of climate interactions with land use will vary by species. Management can help correct non-climate stressors due to land use and support resilient structures and species against climate change.

Tracking the dynamics of tidal wetlands with time-series satellite images in the Yangtze River Estuary, China

ABSTRACT Tidal wetlands provide a variety of ecosystem services to coastal communities but suffer severe losses due to anthropogenic activities in the Yangtze River Estuary (YRE). However, the detailed dynamics of tidal wetlands have not been well studied with sufficient spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we proposed a rapid classification method that integrates the COntinuous monitoring of Land Disturbance (COLD) algorithm and Median Composite (MC) based on the dense Landsat time series to track the dynamic processes of tidal wetlands in the YRE from 1990 to 2020. The results showed that the COLD-MC demonstrated remarkable effectiveness in detecting the change of tidal wetlands and excellent overall accuracy and kappa coefficient ranging from 90% to 96% and 0.89–0.95, respectively. The overall accuracy of change detection was 97% with an absolute error of 0.4 years. We found that the total area of tidal wetlands experienced a net loss of 59.75 km2 in the YRE, but the gain and loss of the study period were 1556.07 and 1615.82 km2, respectively. Land reclamation, sediment reduction, and Spartina alterniflora invasion pose significant threats to tidal wetlands. Sustainable management could be implemented through the establishment of nature reserves and ecological sediment enhancement engineering projects.

Time series procession for monitoring land disturbance caused by surface coal mining in China

Surface mining has been subject to increased criticism and pressure due to its potential to cause environmental damage. China accounts for more than half of world coal consumption, and this continued demand for coal, combined with low costs, has accelerated surface coal mining worldwide. However, it isn't easy to understand the impact of surface mining in China. Therefore, combined with POI, the Exposed Coal Frequency Index (ECFI) was constructed without any mining information in China. A LandTrendr algorithm was used to identify past mining disturbances and reclamation events (1986–2021). While examining these events, surface destruction due to coal mining in China was revealed. Based on the results, (1) the detection accuracy of statistical surface mining sites by province reaches 91.8%, while the detection accuracy of disturbance and reclamation events exceeds 72.59 %. Also, by comparing the mine data, our results provide more accurate information regarding both time and spatial consistency. (2) 253.61 km2 of surface mining sites were identified in 14 provinces or autonomous regions during 1986–2021. Of these, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shanxi and Xinjiang ranked in the top four occupying 89.0% of the total mining site. (3) China has cumulatively disturbed 545.84 km2 and reclaimed 169.41 km2 including more comprehensive human activities. In the last 12 years, large-scale mining and reclamation have accounted for 51.63% and 75.17% of the cumulative area, respectively. (4) Generally, reclamation in China can be completed within four years. In contrast, reclamation time intervals and the proportion of reclamation varied widely between mining areas. Clearly, this study provides the most accurate data on surface coal mining disturbances in China, which will be beneficial for future studies in spatial geography related to mining. It also includes more policies and management creation for mines.

Impact of open-cast placer mining on sediment transport across Far Eastern rivers of Russia

This study examines patterns of sediment transport in Far Eastern rivers of Russia affected by open-cast placer mining—mostly for gold, rarely for silver, and in a few cases for platinum and diamonds. Long-term monitoring and remote-sensing data are used to determine the location of mining landscapes and to detect sediment concentrations and plumes originating from the mining sites. The current study suggests that catchments of the Amur, Kolyma, and Lena rivers are global mining hot spots accommodating up to 1.1%–3.8% of total mining-related vegetation losses. Here, ∼20,100 km of river valleys (0.48% of the river network length) are currently disturbed by mining, with the maximum density of disturbed river valleys being up to 200–300 m/km2 in the basins of the tributaries of the Upper Kolyma and Zeya rivers. To explore the potential mining impact on sediment load, these data were linked with the long-term sediment trends. Concentrations and discharges of mean annual, monthly, and daily suspended sediment decreased from the 1970s and 1980s to the present day at more than 40% of the 40 stream gauge sites assessed across the contiguous Far East. Increasing sediment trends were widespread across 20% of the sites localized in the cluster of greatest mining-related land disturbances. Up to 30% of the sites are characterized by sediment load growth up to the end of the 1980s and a subsequent decline due to the recent abandonment of mining activities. The current study highlights the non-linear relations between mining-related vegetation losses and sediment release into the river network, which is explained by diverse sources of sediment generation within mining areas and other drivers of sediment transport that interact and may attenuate or intensify the signal of mining impact.

To the selection of technology parameters for the use of renewable energy sources on man-made disturbed lands

Renewable energy sources (RES) have become widely used in many developed countries of the world. In the article, the use of RES is considered using the example of wind energy installations (WEI). For industrial scale volumes of electricity produced, wind energy installations of large capacities and designs are used. To choose a rational design of windmills, a classification of windmills of existing designs is provided. Known foreign types of efficient wind generators are considered. Most often, wind energy installations are used in places with a strong wind flow. Wind energy installations with a horizontal axis of rotation are usually used in these areas. For example, information is given on one of the largest wind farms in Ukraine - the Botiivskyi wind farm, which consists of 65 wind energy installations with a horizontal axis of rotation. The practice of using windmills, despite the great benefits of their use, has significant drawbacks. This problem consists in deriving large plots of land for use and having an impact on the surrounding environment. This, in turn, leads to negative consequences for the ecology of these regions. In connection with this, there was a need to use wind energy installations on land plots that have been decommissioned in the conditions of Kryvbas. These include sparsely populated regions, wastelands, and decommissioned plots of land on which the facilities of mining enterprises are located. It has been proven that the placement of WEI with a vertical axis of rotation of medium power on overburden dumps has its own characteristics. For most of the territory of Ukraine, the average wind speed is 3-5 m/s, so the use of wind turbines with a vertical axis of rotation is more appropriate. The starting speed of such wind energy installation is 0.5 m/s, and at a wind speed of 3 m/s, wind energy installations can reach their nominal power. The paper analyzes the possibility of using wind energy installations on man-made disturbed lands, namely on open rock dumps, and recommends their design features. The calculation of the wind energy potential for vertical and horizontal wind energy installations in the conditions of the city of Kryvyi Rih was made. A comparison of the use of vertical and horizontal wind energy installations was made. The effectiveness of the use of wind energy installations with a vertical axis of rotation in the conditions of Kryvbas is shown.

Research of land-saving schemes of mining the horizontal sedimentary mineral deposits

Technological mining transport schemes of open development of horizontal sedimentary deposits are considered. Various land-saving technological schemes for transportation of minerals in the absence of a capital trench have been developed. The dependence of the mineral transportation cost on the production capacity of the mine for the developed schemes was established. The research has been carried out for conditions of surface mining manganese deposits of Nikopol Basin. Transport schemes using mobile steeply inclined conveyor are offered. The developed technological solutions for the conditions of surface mining of deposits of the Nikopol manganese ore basin allow not only to reduce the amount of disturbed land, but also to reduce the cost of minerals by reducing its transportation distance by 2 km. The proposed transport schemes will make it possible to obtain an economic effect in the amount of 1–3 million UAH.

Comprehensive approach to the accounting and restoration of land resources disturbed as a result of military actions in Ukraine

The article proposes a comprehensive approach to the accounting and restoration of disturbed lands as a result of military operations in Ukraine, which requires careful analysis, planning and implementation of various measures aimed at restoring land resources and ensuring the sustainable development of land uses. The proposed approach requires joint efforts of the state, society, domestic enterprises and international partners.

Leveraging past information and machine learning to accelerate land disturbance monitoring

Near real-time (NRT) monitoring of land disturbances holds great importance for delivering emergency aid, mitigating negative social and ecological impacts, and distributing resources for disaster recovery. Many past NRT techniques were built upon examining the overall change magnitude of a spectral anomaly with a predefined threshold, namely the unsupervised approach. However, their lack of fully considering spectral change direction, change date, and pre-disturbance conditions often led to low detection sensitivity and high commission errors, especially when only a few satellite observations were available at the early disturbance stage, eventually resulting in a longer lag to produce a reliable disturbance map. For this study, we developed a novel supervised machine learning approach guided by historical disturbance datasets to accelerate land disturbance monitoring. This new approach consisted of two phases. For the first phase, the supervised approach applied retrospective analysis on historical Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) datasets from 2015 to 2021, combined with several open disturbance products. The disturbance model was constructed for each condition of consecutive anomaly number, with the aim of enhancing the specificity for delineating early-stage disturbance regions. Then, these stage-based models were applied for an NRT scenario to predict disturbance probabilities with 2022 HLS images incrementally on a weekly basis. To demonstrate the capability of this new approach, we developed an operational NRT system incorporating both the unsupervised and supervised approach. Latency and accuracy were evaluated against 3000 samples that were randomly selected from the five most influential disturbance events of the United States in 2022, based on labels and disturbance dates interpreted from daily PlanetScope images. The evaluation showed that the supervised approach required 15 days (since the start of the disturbance event) to reach the plateau of its F1 curve (where most disturbance pixels are detected with high confidence), seven days earlier with roughly 0.2 F1 score improvement compared to the unsupervised approach (0.733 vs. 0.546 F1 score). Further analysis showed the improvement was mainly due to the substantial decrease in commission errors (17.7% vs 44.4%). The latency component analysis illustrated that the supervised approach only took an average of 4.1 days to yield the first disturbance alert at its fastest daily updating speed, owing to its decreased sensitivity lag. This finding highlighted the importance of using past knowledge and machine learning to reduce detection delays for an NRT monitoring task.

ПРЕДВАРИТЕЛЬНАЯ ОЦЕНКА ОЖИДАЕМЫХ ВОЗДЕЙСТВИЙ ОСВОЕНИЯ ВОЛЬФРАМОВОГО МЕСТОРОЖДЕНИЯ НА СОСТОЯНИЕ ОКРУЖАЮЩЕЙ СРЕДЫ И ЗДОРОВЬЕ ДЕТЕЙ ДАЛЬНЕРЕЧЕНСКОГО РАЙОНА ПРИМОРСКОГО КРАЯ

The an ecological assessment of the state of the natural environment of the Dalnerechensk district and the territory of the upcoming development of the tungsten ore deposit is given according to three integral indicators: the state of water resources, atmospheric air, disturbance and pollution of land. There was show the possible directions of impact and consequences of extraction and processing of tungsten ores on the natural environment. It was presents the statistical data on the morbidity of the child population in two districts of the Primorsky Territory, where similar types of economic activities – Pozharsky and Krasnoarmeysky municipal districts in comparison with the child morbidity in the Dalnernechensk district are analyzed. It was identified the acceptable levels of environmental pollution for a number of indicators affecting the health of children.

STUDY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE EXPLOITATION OF RARE ELEMENTS

The presented article is devoted to the investigation of changes in the environment caused by the exploitation of deposits of rare elements in different ways. As is known, significant changes occur in the environment during exploitation of mineral deposits. For instance, air pollution with various emissions, formation of depressions, and etc. It is necessary to implement complex measures to prevent such situations. Extraction of rare elements is a very important. These elements are applied in various fields of industry. The article provides general information about rare elements, the methods used in obtaining, and separating of rare elements are shown. The fields of application of rare and rare-earth elements are shown in more detail. The distribution of rare-earth elements in the earth’s crust and the amount of these elements produced by the countries of the world is shown. Environmental changes during the exploitation of deposits, and also the effects of these elements on the human body were investigated. The results are discussed at the end of the article. Issues such as implementation of intensive control of changes in the environment during exploitation of mineral deposits, application of machines and equipment that meet safety standards, and recultivation of disturbed lands were specially emphasized. In addition, the importance of neutralization of radioactive waste is noted. Keywords: environmental protection, rare elements, exploitation, rare-earth elements, minerals.

A global atlas of pumped hydro systems that repurpose existing mining sites

Large amounts of energy storage are required to support high levels of solar and wind power. Pumped hydro energy storage comprises the majority of global energy storage for the electricity industry. A previous study identified 616,000 potential “Greenfield” closed-loop (off-river) pumped hydro sites around the world with combined storage of 23,000 Terawatt-hours (TWh). In this study, we identify 904 sites in mining areas (“Brownfield”) with combined potential storage of 30 TWh. A high spatial resolution global atlas of Brownfield closed-loop pumped hydro energy storage systems is available online. It was developed through Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of a digital terrain model. The GIS algorithm identified mining pits, pit lakes, and tailings ponds within mining sites and located nearby reservoirs that could form a suitable pair. All Brownfield pumped hydro sites were assigned a cost class of A to E to allow comparison between sites on the global atlas. There are far fewer Brownfield than Greenfield options, with 77 countries found to contain eligible locations. Despite the smaller number of eligible locations, Brownfield sites typically have other advantages including existing transmission infrastructure, water pumping infrastructure, road access, social licence and reduced environmental impact for development on disturbed land.

Species-level correlates of land-use responses and climate-change sensitivity in terrestrial vertebrates.

Land-use and climate change are major pressures on terrestrial biodiversity. Species' extinction risk and responses to human pressures relate to ecological traits and other characteristics in some clades. However, large-scale comparative assessments of the associations between traits and responses to multiple human pressures across multiple clades are needed. We investigated whether a set of ecological characteristics that are commonly measured across terrestrial vertebrates (ecological traits and geographic range area) are associated with species' responses to different land-use types and species' likely sensitivity to climate change. We aimed to test whether generalizable patterns in response to these pressures arise across both pressures and across vertebrate clades, which could inform assessments of the global signature of human pressures on vertebrate biodiversity and guide conservation efforts. At the species level, we investigated associations between land-use responses and ecological characteristics with a space-for-time substitution approach, making use of the PREDICTS database. We investigated associations between ecological characteristics and expected climate-change sensitivity, estimated from properties of species realized climatic niches. Among the characteristics we considered, 3 were consistently associated with strong land-use responses and high climate-change sensitivity across terrestrial vertebrate classes: narrow geographic range, narrow habitat breadth, and specialization on natural habitats (which described whether a species occurs in artificial habitats or not). The associations of other traits with species' land-use responses and climate-change sensitivity often depended on species' class and land-use type, highlighting an important degree of context dependency. In all classes, invertebrate eaters and fruit and nectar eaters tended to be negatively affected in disturbed land-use types, whereas invertebrate-eating and plant- and seed-eating birds were estimated to be more sensitive to climate change, raising concerns about the continuation of ecological processes sustained by these species under global changes. Our results highlight a consistently higher sensitivity of narrowly distributed species and habitat specialists to land-use and climate change, which provides support for capturing such characteristics in large-scale vulnerability assessments.

The Use of Remote Sensing in the Study of Open-pit Mining and the Ecology of Disturbed Lands in Deposits of Cement Raw Materials in the Regions of Russia

Based on the results of remote monitoring, the state of mining operations in quarries for the extraction of mineral raw materials consumed by cement plants in Russia was investigated. The fleet of mining and transport vehicles in operation in cement quarries was studied. The production capacity of each quarry in terms of rock mass and the total production potential of quarries in Russia, estimated at 210 million tons per year, have been determined. The environmental indicators of disturbed lands during the development of mineral deposits for use in the cement industry as a whole are presented.

Analysis of the structure of lands disturbed by underground mining of ore deposits

The purpose of the work is to study and analyze the structure of the lands disturbed by the mining enterprises of Eastern Siberia and the Far East developing ore deposits. While the issue of disturbed land reclamation is treated today by the project documentation of the mining enterprises as an aggregate plan, there is a risk of leaving the lands without due attention after the completion of mining operations. The conducted study included the analysis of the disturbed land structure according to the project documentation and field observations at four mining enterprises. As a result, the nature of the disturbed land sites and their area was determined. The field research revealed disturbances not provided by the projects and requiring extraordinary solutions to eliminate them. The average structure of disturbed lands under underground mining of ore deposits was determined, its differences from the similar structure under open-pit mining were identified. It has been proven that the activities of mining enterprises involved in the underground development of ore deposits and reclamation of disturbed lands lack due attention, which leads to the growth in technogenic relief area and adverse environmental impacts. The presented research methodology includes field work with the visits to mining enterprises, as well as the analysis of design solutions and satellite images.

Results of Remote Monitoring of the Technological Potential and Ecology of Open-pit Mining at Mineral Deposits for the Production of Crushed Stone

Based on the results of remote monitoring, the state of mining operations in quarries for the extraction of mineral raw materials consumed by crushed stone plants in Russia was investigated. The indicators of integrated mechanization of crushed stone quarries based on the presence of operating mining and transport vehicles have been identified. The production capacity of each quarry in terms of rock mass and the total production potential of the crushed stone plants in Russia, estimated at 285 million tons per year, have been determined. The environmental indicators of disturbed lands during the development of mineral deposits for use in the crushed stone plants are presented.

Information Management for Remote Monitoring of the Ecology of Disturbed Lands During the Development of Deposits of Chrysotile-asbestos and Fluxing Limestone

Based on the results of remote monitoring, the current state of mining operations in quarries for the extraction of chrysotile-asbestos and metallurgical fluxes used in various sectors of the Russian national economy was studied. The production capacity of each quarry in terms of rock mass at the studied deposits and the total production potential of the quarries for the extraction of minerals, estimated at at least 95 million tons per year, have been determined. The environmental indicators of disturbed lands during the development of deposits of chrysotile-asbestos and metallurgical fluxes are presented.

Development and implementation of a stand-level satellite-based forest inventory for Canada

Abstract Satellite data are increasingly used to provide information to support forest monitoring and reporting at varying levels of detail and for a range of attributes and spatial extents. Forests are dynamic environments and benefit from regular assessments to capture status and changes both locally and over large areas. Satellite data can provide products relevant to forest science and management on a regular basis (e.g. annually) for land cover, disturbance (i.e. date, extent, severity, and type), forest recovery (e.g. quantification of return of trees following disturbance), and forest structure (e.g. volume, biomass, canopy cover, stand height), with products generated over large areas in a systematic, transparent, and repeatable fashion. While pixel-based outcomes are typical based upon satellite data inputs, many end users continue to require polygon-based forest inventory information. To meet this information need and have a spatial context for forest inventory attributes such as tree species assemblages, we present a new work-flow to produce a novel spatially explicit, stand-level satellite-based forest inventory (SBFI) in Canada applying image segmentation approaches to generate spatially unique forest stands (polygons), which are the fundamental spatial unit of management-level inventories. Thus, SBFI offers spatial context to aggregate and generalize other pixel-based forest data sets. Canada has developed a National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System (NTEMS) that utilizes medium spatial resolution imagery, chiefly from Landsat, to annually characterize Canada’s forests at a pixel level from 1984 until present. These NTEMS datasets are used to populate SBFI polygons with information regarding status (e.g. current land cover type, dominant tree species, or total biomass) as well as information on dynamics (e.g. has this polygon been subject to change, when, by what, and if so, how is the forest recovering). Here, we outline the information drivers for forest monitoring, present a set of products aimed at meeting these information needs, and follow to demonstrate the SBFI concept over the 650-Mha extent of Canada’s forest-dominated ecosystems. In so doing, the entirety of Canada’s forest ecosystems (managed and unmanaged) were mapped using the same data, attributes, and temporal representation. Moreover, the use of polygons allows for the generation of attributes such as tree species composition, and total biomass and wood volume in a stand-scale format familiar to landscape managers and suitable for strategic planning. The data, methods, and outcomes presented here are portable to other regions and input data sources, and the national SBFI outcomes for Canada are available via open access.

Biological reclamation of post-technogenic landscapes of Yakutia: problems and prospects

In the context of intensive industrial development in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the issue of restoring technogenically disturbed areas is becoming increasingly relevant. Technogenic landscapes formed during the extraction of mineral deposits often have negative effects on the environment, and severe environmental conditions hinder the restoration of ecosystems affected by industrial activities. This study synthesized the long-term research results of scientists from the Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North named after Prof., Dr. Savvinov (NEFU) on the study of succession and soil restoration processes in post-technogenic landscapes of placer deposits in the basins of the Anabar River and the Aldan River, as well as at the diamond and coal ore deposits in the Mirninsky, Aldansky and Neryungrinsky regions of Yakutia. Our study demonstrated that the effective restoration of technogenically disturbed landscapes is relevant to the use of seeds and planting materials from local flora in the biological stage of reclamation. On the dumps of ore deposits composed of rocks that are slowly weathered under hypergenesis conditions, effective restoration can be achieved only with the formation of technogenic soil. Due to the deficit of (decipher) PPP and (decipher)PSP, it is necessary to create a technology for the biological reclamation of disturbed lands with the use of alternative materials.

On the question of the economic feasibility of implementing climate projects on disturbed land in the central federal district

On the question of the economic feasibility of implementing climate projects on disturbed land in the central federal district