title: Land cover transformation in two post-mining landscapes subjected to different ages of reclamation since dumping of spoils.
abstract: Transformation of natural land cover (LC) into modified LC has become inevitable due to growing human needs. Nevertheless, landscape transformational patterns during reclamation of mine damaged lands remain vague. Our hypothesis was that post-mining landscapes with different ages since dumping become more diverse in LC transformation over time. The aim was to study the impact of landscape reclamation on land cover changes (LCC) in two post-mining landscapes. Land cover maps of 1988, 1991, 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2003 were produced from LANDSAT TM images of Schlabendorf Nord and Schlabendorf Süd and used to survey the changing landscape. Change detection extension was used to identify changes among land cover types (LCTs). Detrended correspondence analyses (DCA) ordination technique (CANOCO) aided study of similarity among LC distribution. Soil pH analysis was carried out to study effect of soil and climate conditions on LCC. The results show that visible patterns of increase and decrease in the LCTs occurred in both landscapes. Given two post-mining landscapes subjected to different ages of reclamation, clear differences in vegetation growth and LCC pattern would occur. At early stages of restoration, LCTs often have unstable conditions and experience more acute transformation depending on the level of land use intensity in space and time. LCCs were mostly due to progressive and reversed succession. Due to variation in post-mining landscape soil conditions, soil treatment during reclamation should be site specific. The comparative analysis of LCCs in Schlabendorf provides a framework for prioritizing land use planning options for sustainable management of post-mining landscapes in temperate ecosystems.
authors.affiliation: United Nations University- Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), Tokyo, Japan ; The University of Tokyo, Todai Institutes for Advanced Study, Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Effah K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Antwi
authors.affiliation: School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5C8 Canada.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Boakye-Danquah
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Department of Geosceinces, Technische Universitaet Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephen B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Asabere
authors.affiliation: United Nations University- Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), Tokyo, Japan ; The University of Tokyo, Todai Institutes for Advanced Study, Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science (IR3S), Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.affiliation: Environmental Science and Process Engineering, Department of General Ecology, Technical University of Brandenburg (BTU), Cottbus, Germany.
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wiegleb