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Influence of management on vegetation restoration in coal waste dump after reclamation in semi-arid mining areas: examining ShengLi coalfield in Inner Mongolia, China

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Abstract

Conservation management usually carried out for a period of time to maintain the vegetation restoration of coal waste dumps after reclamation. However, the natural restoration of vegetation is faced with great challenges in semi-arid mining areas without management, due to the fragile ecological environment. Therefore, it is necessary to determine a reasonable management plan so that vegetation restoration can reach a stable state although the abandonment of the management. The objective was to explore the difference of vegetation restoration under different management modes in a typical semi-arid mining area. Two reclaimed coal waste dumps under different management measures, the north waste dump (ND) and the south waste dump (SD), were examined in the ShengLi coalfield in Inner Mongolia, China. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dataset based on Landsat series imagery was obtained using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, and the landscape metrics were also calculated based on different vegetation coverage. The results proved that 3 years of management was not enough to stabilize vegetation restoration. A serious vegetation degradation occurred at the ND after the management stopped, with 40.1% of the pixels recorded a significant decrease (ρ = 0.05). The vegetation coverage became fragmented, and there was a tendency of succession to lower coverage. On the contrary, the vegetation restoration of SD was better under continuous management, and no significant degradation trend was observed. Furthermore, the results indicated that rainfall is the main influencing factor on vegetation restoration in semi-arid mining areas. The coal waste dump was more susceptible to weather change in natural restoration. By contrast, continuous management measures will resist such climate disturbances, even in dry years. This research will provide support for the formulation of the reclamation management plan of coal waste dumps in semi-arid mining areas.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed in this study are available from the corresponding author by request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the National Key R&D Program of China for its support. The authors also thank Jiaxin Liang for her advice on data processing.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [grant No. 2016YFC0501103].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    He Ren, Yanling Zhao, Jiaqi Li & Xi Yang

  2. Department of Land Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Wu Xiao

Authors
  1. He Ren
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  2. Yanling Zhao
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  3. Wu Xiao
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  4. Jiaqi Li
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  5. Xi Yang
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Contributions

H.R—data collection; formal analysis; original manuscript writing; visualization.

Y.Z—conceptualization; review.

W.X—conceptualization; methodology; funding acquisition.

J.L and X.Y—review and editing.

All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wu Xiao.

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Ren, ., Zhao, Y., Xiao, W. et al. Influence of management on vegetation restoration in coal waste dump after reclamation in semi-arid mining areas: examining ShengLi coalfield in Inner Mongolia, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 68460–68474 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15361-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15361-9

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