IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i12p4288-d372066.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Influence of Mining and Vegetation Restoration on Soil Properties in the Eastern Margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Author

Listed:
  • Yunlong Hu

    (State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730030, China)

  • Zhifeng Yu

    (Third Institute Geological and Mineral Exploration of Gansu Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Lanzhou 730030, China)

  • Xiangling Fang

    (State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730030, China)

  • Weixiong Zhang

    (Third Institute Geological and Mineral Exploration of Gansu Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Lanzhou 730030, China)

  • Jinrong Liu

    (State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730030, China)

  • Feng Zhao

    (Third Institute Geological and Mineral Exploration of Gansu Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Lanzhou 730030, China)

Abstract

Mining causes serious destruction of the surface morphology and soil structure of lands, and vegetation restoration on post-mining lands provides an effective way for soil and water conservation. To determine the influence of mining and vegetation restoration on soil properties in the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, four land sites, including two vegetation restoration sites (restorated by Elymus nutans and Picea crassifolia , respectively), one non-vegetated mining site and one native grassland site, were selected. Fifty-two topsoil (0–10) samples were collected from these four sites, and then soil properties, trace metals and soil enzyme activities were analyzed. The results showed that there was an increase in soil pH (>8.0) after mining, while vegetation restoration decreased the soil pH compared with native grassland; the soil organic matter and total nitrogen in the site restored with E. nutans increased by 48.8% and 25.17%, respectively, compared with the site restored with P. crassifolia . The soil enzyme activities decreased after mining, and there were no significant increases in urease, phosphatase, β-glucosidase and β-1,4- N -acetylglucosaminidase activities after five years of restoration. In addition, the contents of soil trace metals (cadmium, chromium, mercury, lead and zinc) after mining were lower than the Chinese threshold (GB 15618/2018), but the content of arsenic in non-vegetated soil and P. crassifolia -restored soil exceeded the threshold by 22.61 times and 22.86 times, respectively. Therefore, As-contaminated land areas should be accurately determined and treated in a timely way to prevent arsenic from spreading, and plant species with tolerance to alkaline soil should be selected for vegetation restoration on post-mining lands.

Suggested Citation

  • Yunlong Hu & Zhifeng Yu & Xiangling Fang & Weixiong Zhang & Jinrong Liu & Feng Zhao, 2020. "Influence of Mining and Vegetation Restoration on Soil Properties in the Eastern Margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-12, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:12:p:4288-:d:372066
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4288/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/12/4288/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jianwei Bu & Ziyong Sun & Aiguo Zhou & Youning Xu & Rui Ma & Wenhao Wei & Meng Liu, 2016. "Heavy Metals in Surface Soils in the Upper Reaches of the Heihe River, Northeastern Tibetan Plateau, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, February.
    2. Wenhao Wei & Rui Ma & Ziyong Sun & Aiguo Zhou & Jianwei Bu & Xiang Long & Yunde Liu, 2018. "Effects of Mining Activities on the Release of Heavy Metals (HMs) in a Typical Mountain Headwater Region, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liqun Jin & Xilai Li & Huafang Sun & Junteng Wang & Jing Zhang & Yufang Zhang, 2022. "Effects of Restoration Years on Vegetation and Soil Characteristics under Different Artificial Measures in Alpine Mining Areas, West China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-18, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fuling Zhang & Guangchao Cao & Shengkui Cao & Zhuo Zhang & Hongda Li & Gang Jiang, 2023. "Characteristics and Potential Ecological Risks of Heavy Metal Content in the Soil of a Plateau Alpine Mining Area in the Qilian Mountains," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Jinfeng Zeng & Zuwen Liu & Xinggen Liu & Linan Zhang & Jun Zhang & Yangsong Zeng, 2023. "The Spatiotemporal Variations and Potential Causes of Water Quality of Headwaters of Dongjiang River, Southeastern China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-14, April.
    3. Wenhao Wei & Rui Ma & Ziyong Sun & Aiguo Zhou & Jianwei Bu & Xiang Long & Yunde Liu, 2018. "Effects of Mining Activities on the Release of Heavy Metals (HMs) in a Typical Mountain Headwater Region, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, September.
    4. Jianwei Bu & Ziyong Sun & Rui Ma & Yunde Liu & Xulong Gong & Zhao Pan & Wenhao Wei, 2020. "Shallow Groundwater Quality and Its Controlling Factors in the Su-Xi-Chang Region, Eastern China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-18, February.
    5. Jianwei Bu & Wei Liu & Zhao Pan & Kang Ling, 2020. "Comparative Study of Hydrochemical Classification Based on Different Hierarchical Cluster Analysis Methods," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-23, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:12:p:4288-:d:372066. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.