Recovery quality index as a tool for monitoring the mined land reclamation

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dc.contributor.authorQuintiliano Alves, Maísaen
dc.contributor.authorRodrigues de Assis, Igoren
dc.contributor.authorLima Neves, Júlio Césaren
dc.contributor.authorZeidan Oliveira, Fernandaen
dc.contributor.authorde Abreu Anunciaçāo, Amandaen
dc.contributor.authorSilva Moreira, Sandro Lúcioen
dc.contributor.authorStewart, Ryan Danielen
dc.date.accessioned2025-03-21T14:34:24Zen
dc.date.available2025-03-21T14:34:24Zen
dc.date.issued2024-02-10en
dc.description.abstractMany ecosystems are being severely degraded, leading the United Nations to deem 2021–2030 as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. To be successful, this effort requires robust monitoring tools to assess land reclamation practices. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of recovery efforts in mined areas by developing a Recovery Quality Index (RQI) based on soil and vegetation indicators. Using the heavily mined Iron Quadrangle region of Brazil as an example, four undisturbed reference areas were selected: Atlantic Forest; ferruginous rupestrian grassland with dense vegetation; ferruginous rupestrian grassland with sparse vegetation; and quartzite rupestrian grassland. Four areas directly or indirectly affected by mining were selected, including an environmental compensation area set aside 5 years prior to the study, two sterile piles that had undergone recovery for 15 and 20 years, and a cave area with 15 years of recovery. Two vegetation parameters and 34 soil attributes were used in a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to select indicators and scores. Vegetative parameters had the lowest RQI weights. Soil physical indicators tended to be the most important. RQI values were lowest when Atlantic Forest was used as the reference, showing that the forest was a unique ecosystem, and the cave site had lower RQI scores than the other restored sites, indicating the high degree of disturbance that occurred in that low-lying area. The oldest sterile pile tended to have higher RQI values than the newest and similar values to the less disturbed compensation areas. The recovery quality index values were similar in all areas, with 5 to 20 years in the recovery process, showing that the rehabilitation process is slow in this environment.en
dc.description.sponsorshipWe thank the company VALE S.A. for funding this research and for all support in the field work. This study was also financed in part by the Coordenaçāo de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001 and by Fundaçāo de Apoio a Pesquisa de Minas Gerais – Brasil (FAPEMIG) – Finance Code RDP-00001-17.en
dc.format.extent12 pagesen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.111716en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10919/124909en
dc.identifier.volume159en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherElsevieren
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectSoil indicatorsen
dc.subjectVegetation indicatorsen
dc.subjectIron miningen
dc.subjectEcological restorationen
dc.titleRecovery quality index as a tool for monitoring the mined land reclamationen
dc.title.serialEcological Indicatorsen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten

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