Mining Can Exacerbate Global Degradation of Dryland

Abstract

However, the global annual mineral production (AMP) in arid and semiarid regions increased by ∼120 × 10 8 t from 1990 to 2018 (Figure 1c). The AMP decreased in ≥8% of drylands due to unstable socioeconomic conditions but tended to steadily increase from 700 × 10 4 to 5,300 × 10 4 t in 62% of the global drylands, such as those in North America, South Africa, Asia, and Oceania (Figure 1b). However, the degradation of drylands by mining activities has been greatly neglected, particularly in developing countries, which have largely focused on the benefits of mineral production for socioeconomic development (Lambin & Meyfroidt, 2011). Drylands are home to >38% of the global population (Huang et al., 2017), and 90% of drylands are in developing countries (Armah Abstract Groundwater storage (GS) is the major water resource for vegetation in drylands. Thus, positive relationships between vegetative growth condition (VGC) and GS are expected in drylands. Since mining-induced dewatering tends to deplete GS surrounding mine sites, VGC should become less favorable due to a shortage of accessible water. However, quantitative analysis repealed the opposite. We found that global annual mineral production in drylands increased by 24%, while GS decreased by 22% but the VGC improved by 37% (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010). And negative relationships between VGC and GS were detected in 84.7% of global dryland mine sites. We concluded that irrigation supported by mining-induced dewatering promoted the vegetation growth surrounding mine sites. However, since the GS is limited, irrigation-supported vegetation growth is unsustainable. This study elucidates the reason behind these abnormal negative relationships and highlights the potential risk of vegetation degradation induced by unsustainable groundwater depletion in global dryland mine sites.

Oceanic climate changes threaten the sustainability of Asia’s water tower

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“…Vegetation changes in ecologically vulnerable regions have aroused pervasive concerns [4,[21][22][23]. Vegetation changes over the drylands are highly sensitive to both climate changes and human disturbances [24,25]. Global warming is generally expected to amplify the existing spatial patterns of moisture conditions, leading to the drylands becoming even more drier [26].…”

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