Effect of Mining Activities on Structure and Function of Rangeland Ecosystem Using the Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) (Case study: Dareh Zereshk Copper Mine, Yazd, Iran) (original) (raw)
Related papers
2020
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of copper extraction on the structure and function of rangelands ecosystem around the mine area in Dareh Zereshk, Yazd province, Iran. Three study sites were considered at the specified intervals of the mine (0-200, 200-500 and 500-1000m). This research was conducted from 2012 to 2013. In each location, three linear transects with a length of 50 m were deployed in the slope direction. The structural characteristics were measured for ecological patches and inter patches space along each transect, and the landscape organization indices for each ecological unit (distance from the mine) were calculated. For each patch and inter patch, five measurement areas (replicates) were considered over each transect. In addition, 11 soil surface indices were evaluated and categorized. Using the soil surface indices scoring, the functional characteristics of each ecological unit including stability, permeability and nutrient cycle were calculated for e...
International Journal of Scientific Research in Environmental Sciences, 2014
Restoration practices have important impact on soil surface and functional characteristic of rangelands. So, for the sustainable utilization of the rangelands, these changes should be recognized and managed. The present study was conducted to recognize the effects of contour furrow on ecological indices of rangeland health in Ghick Sheikha contour furrow (Jiroft) using landscape function analysis. A free contour furrow (as control) was also selected to compare the effects of contour furrow on soil factors and vegetation cover. In this method, 11 soil parameters were assessed to recognize three functional properties, including stability, infiltration and nutrient cycling (using analysis of landscape function software) and, paired t-test was used to compare the performance indicators in the control and contour furrow. However the number of patches was more in the control treatment, the results showed that in the contour furrow area, the length of ecological components (patches) was more than in the control treatment. Three health indicators in the contour furrow were more than in the control treatment and there was a significant difference between two areas (p‹ 0.05). In addition, regression model analyses between two areas suggested that the parameters of litter movement, soil surface resistance to erosion, soil surface roughness, and erosion in contour furrow and soil surface roughness, litter cover and soil surface resistance to erosion in the control area had respectively the biggest share among the rangeland health indicators. Generally, the present study suggested effectiveness of contour furrow compared to the control.
European Journal of Soil Science, 2016
Sustainable rangelands management continues to be one of the main challenges facing arid ecosystem. The function of a rangeland ecosystem depends on the conservation of resources within the ecosystem. Finding the rangeland ecosystem functions requires the knowledge of soil and vegetation characteristics to understand the ecosystem's capabilities. In this research, in order to identify the damaged areas in arid regions, the effect of grazing on the ecosystem function was investigated using the distance from the water resources. Thus, in the present study, around 3 water resources in 4 principal geographical directions and 172 plots with 4 m 2 were installed. In each plot, 11-soil surface indexes were estimated by the landscape function analysis (LFA) method. Then, using 11 soil surface indexes, three soil functional properties include stability; permeability and nutrient cycle were calculated. In order to determine the sensitivity of the LFA method and separate the functional and structural characteristics SPSS software V.19 were used and the analysis of variance and comparing the mean of common features conducted by Duncan's method. Multivariate analysis of variance and correlation showed that the three functional features had no significant relationship with the four geographical directions (P <0.01) but had a significant relationship with the distance from the water resources (P <0.01). These results indicated that the ecosystem functions increases with distance from the water resources. Also, the results of Duncan's test showed that the high grazing intensity near the water resources caused a critical range of 150m from the water resources.
Monitoring and evaluating the distribution and dynamics of vegetation cover in rangelands is very important to study the impact of human activities and climate change on rangeland ecosystems. The scientist's predictions of positive and negative changes in rangeland conditions were difficult in many cases due to weak understanding of the interaction between causes and effects as well as limited information about vegetation and soil at large areas. The use of some newly developed indicators has changed this status and increased our knowledge about rangeland ecosystem. Recently, the most used indicators to monitor rangeland ecosystem dynamics is Landscape Function Analysis (LFA). This paper aims to review the recent applications of LFA methodology and its relationship with some Spectral Vegetation Indices (VIs) in rangeland ecological studies and discuss its expected key role in future researches.
CATENA, 2018
This study aimed to evaluate the application of landscape function analysis (LFA) and some soil quality indicators for the assessment of the structure and function of Steppe rangelands in arid regions of Ghamishloo National Park, Isfahan, central Iran. Three zones with different protection levels/grazing intensities, including a national park with wild herbivores, a peripheral protected area where both livestock and wild herbivores were present, and an adjacent grazing-free area where wild herbivores were absent, were selected. Eleven soil surface indicators were assessed to measure soil stability, infiltration, and nutrient cycling indices in various zones. Eighty-seven soil samples were collected in the study area and their characteristics, including pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total nitrogen, phosphate, soil organic carbon (SOC), particulate organic matter (POM), microbial respiration, and mean weight diameter (MWD), were measured. The results showed that although structural attributes (patch area index and landscape organization index) and LFA functional attributes varied significantly between the sites with various management histories (P < 0.05), these attributes along with total patch area and number of patches per 10 m did not have significant differences between the protected and grazing-free area. Most soil quality indicators were also significantly different between the national park and grazing-free area, but MWD, SOC, and POM were not significantly different between the protected and grazingfree areas (P < 0.05). High protection level (i.e. lower grazing impact) led to more soil stability and higher proportion of macro-aggregates in the national park area compared to other areas. The methods used in this study are applicable for exploring the role of national parks in maintaining the structure and function of ecosystems in similar ecoregions.
Landscape functions and their change – a review on methodological approaches
Ecological Engineering, 2015
types of landscape, i.e. mining and non-mining. The study presented in this paper proves that it is relevant to analyse the changes occurring in different woodland categories separately. The same methodology may be applied when studying the change dynamics of other important landscape elements, such as wood pastures and wetlands.
Relationship between land use changes, soil degradation and landscape functions
2014
Landscape changes can be divided into two main groups, related to ecosystem stability. On one hand there are changes which do not break stability conditions; on the other hand there are those that will start to cause an ecosystem crash. In practice it is often not easy to distinguish between these two because of a the lack of detailed knowledge abaut the systems involved. Most investigations of landscape changes deal with changes of land use and landscape elements. In this way, both important anthropogenic impacts as well as resulting visible changes can be considered. But visible changes are only symptoms of landscape dynamics and do not describe this process. Most of other landscape components also change because of anthropogenic influences. There will also be a lot of functional changes, because of the fundamental interconnection between structure and function. These functional changes can be used to describe and to assess extensive landscape changes (e.g. Bork et al., 1995; Bast...
Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, 2014
Functional and structural features of plant patches in different ecological sites are used as ecological threshold predictors in natural ecosystems. This study aimed to: (i) find the effect of types of plant patches (based on live form) on potential and function of woodland ecosystems and (ii) compare plant patches function in utilized and un-utilized sites on the south slope of Alborz Mountain, Golestan Province. For this purpose, eleven parameters of the soil surface attributes of each plant patches were assessed using the Landscape Function Analysis methodology across four transects of 100 meters located at the highest slope. Then stability, nutrient cycle, and infiltration indicators of each plant patches were calculated using Excel software. These indicators were tested between two sites and within the plant patch groups using Student t-test and Duncan comparison of means analysis, respectively, by SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software. The study did not find a significant difference between the two sites and the plant patches, except for the stability indicator between the sites. Also, results showed different functions within the groups of the sites, especially in the woody plant patches with the highest function in all the indicators in both sites. Woody and woody-grass were the most important ecological indicators at utilized and un-utilized sites. The results of this study suggest that the use of Landscape Function Analysis provides a simple, rapid and consistent method in assessment of the forest ecosystems health.
2014
Soil, plant and indicators are the main criteria to recognize the function of natural ecosystems and evaluate their potentials. Rangeland ecosystem contains various patches with different functions. The structural and functional characteristics of fertilized patches in Bozdaghy rangeland, in North-Khorasan Province was measured and analyzed in this study. A group of measurable and simple indices of landscape function analysis (LFA) methods were used to evaluate these characteristics. The data were measured from seven land unit which is developed from overlaying of geology map on the dem and slope map. In this research the length and width of ecological patches by the forms of Grass, forb, shrub and bare soil with litter measured. Also we measured 11 soil surface parameters on three, 50 meters transects in the seven mentioned regions. These 11 parameters are belonging to 3 major attributes of soil: Stability, infiltration and nutrients. Statistical analysis of data using the software...
2016
Many regions in Libya have begun to show signs of rangelands degradation, the major causes of which are drought and overgrazing.It has been documented that rangelands deterioration has led to a reduction in the variety of plants and a decrease in yield, and this decreases the regenerative capacity of rangeland ecosystem. This study was conducted on the southern slope of Al- Jabal Al- Akhdar, northeast Libya.The main objective was to assess shrub rangeland recovery to determine whether or not exclosures (fenced areas) are an effective method or strategy for the restoration and rehabilitation of rangelands at the regional level.Four research areas with moderate to severe degraded soil and vegetation, namely Madur Zetun, Omguzlan, Thahar Altair, and Ajramiah, were selected along a strong north-south rainfall gradient, which include a diverse range of soil and vegetation types. A total of 28 monitoring sites were re-installed and assessed between May and December 2014. These sites were ...