Vegetation dynamics of coal mining city in an arid desert region of Northwest China from 2000 to 2019

doi:10.1007/s40333-021-0007-3

Journal of Arid Land

2021, Vol. 13

Issue (5): 534-547 DOI: 10.1007/s40333-021-0007-3

Research article

Vegetation dynamics of coal mining city in an arid desert region of Northwest China from 2000 to 2019

ZHOU Siyuan, DUAN Yufeng, ZHANG Yuxiu^*(

), GUO Jinjin

School of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China

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Abstract

Coal mining has led to serious ecological damages in arid desert region of Northwest China. However, effects of climatic factor and mining activity on vegetation dynamics and plant diversity in this region remain unknown. Wuhai City located in the arid desert region of Northwest China is an industrial city and dominated by coal mining. Based on Landsat data and field investigation in Wuhai City, we analyzed the vegetation dynamics and the relationships with climate factors, coal mining activity and ecological restoration projects from 2000 to 2019. Results showed that vegetation in Wuhai City mostly consisted of desert plants, such as Caragana microphylla, Tetraena mongolica and Achnatherum splendens. And the vegetation fractional coverage (VFC) and greenness rate of change (GRC) showed that vegetation was slightly improved during the study period. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was positively correlated with annual mean precipitation, relative humidity and annual mean temperature, indicating that these climate factors might play important roles in the improved vegetation. Vegetation coverage and plant diversity around the coal mining area were reduced by coal mining, while the implementation of ecological restoration projects improved the vegetation coverage and plant diversity. Our results suggested that vegetation in the arid desert region was mainly affected by climate factors, and the implementation of ecological restoration projects could mitigate the impacts of coal mining on vegetation and ecological environment.

Key words： climate factor ecological restoration normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) plant diversity Wuhai City

Received: 10 September 2020 Published: 10 May 2021

Corresponding Authors:

About author: *ZHANG Yuxiu (E-mail: zhangyuxiu@cumtb.edu.cn)

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	Siyuan ZHOU
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Cite this article:

ZHOU Siyuan, DUAN Yufeng, ZHANG Yuxiu, GUO Jinjin. Vegetation dynamics of coal mining city in an arid desert region of Northwest China from 2000 to 2019. Journal of Arid Land, 2021, 13(5): 534-547.

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http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-021-0007-3 OR http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2021/V13/I5/534

Fig. 1 Location of study area and distribution of sampling site in Wuhai City (a, b and c). Area M (d) is near to open-pit coal mine. Area M includes the core reserve area (M1), reserve area (M2) and marginal area (M3) of T. mongolica and open-pit coal mine (CM). BG, botanical garden; DR, dump waste reclamation area; TmD, T. mongolica disturbance area; W, wetland; CR, abandoned coking vegetation restoration area; SR, subsidence restoration area; NS, natural shrub vegetation area; TmN, T. mongolica Nature Reserve; GM, Gander Mountain.

Table 1 Remote sensing images used in this study

Table 2 Classification of vegetation fractional coverage (VFC) in Wuhai City from 2000 to 2019

Fig. 2 Spatiotemporal distribution of vegetation fractional coverage (VFC) in Wuhai City. (a), 2000; (b), 2006; (c), 2009; (d), 2011; (e), 2019.

Fig. 3 Area changes in vegetation fractional coverage (VFC) in Wuhai City from 2000 to 2019

Table 3 Dynamics of greenness rate of change (GRC) during three stages in Wuhai City

Fig. 4 Dynamics of annual land cover classification in Wuhai City. (a), 2000; (b), 2006; (c), 2009; (d), 2011; (e), 2019.

Fig. 5 Area of land cover and coal output in Wuhai City from 2000 to 2019

Fig. 6 Change in vegetation fractional coverage (VFC) over a chronological sequence in Wuhai City (a) and area M (b) and area percentage of different VFC levels in M1 (core reserve area), M2 (reserve area), M3 (marginal area) and CM (open-pit coal mine) in 2000, 2009 and 2018 (c)

Fig. 7 Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) change at sampling sites in Wuhai City from 2000 to 2019. BG, botanical garden; CR, abandoned coking plant restoration area; SR, subsidence restoration area; DR, dump waste reclamation area; TmD, T. mongolica disturbance area; NS, natural shrub vegetation area; GM, Gander Mountain; TmN, T. mongolica Nature Reserve; W, wetland.

Table 4 Plant community composition in each sampling site

Fig. 8 Plant alpha diversity indices, coverage, occurrence of T. mongolica (a) and beta diversity indices (b) at sampling sites in Wuhai City from 2000 to 2019. BG, botanical garden; CR, abandoned coking plant restoration area; SR, subsidence restoration area; DR, dump waste reclamation area; TmD, T. mongolica disturbance area; NS, natural shrub vegetation area; GM, Gander Mountain; TmN, T. mongolica Nature Reserve; W, wetland.

Fig. 9 Inter-annual normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI, a), annual precipitation (AP, b), relative humidity (RH, c), mean temperature (MT, d), strong wind frequency (W%, e) and annual average wind speed (WS, f) in Wuhai City from 2000 to 2019. The linear trend (red dashed lines) is based on ordinary least squares regression, while the nonlinear trend (blue solid lines) is fitted by LOWESS (locally weighted scatter point smoothing).


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