Spatiotemporal Variability of Human Disturbance Impacts on Ecosystem Services in Mining Areas

Abstract

Human activities pose significant impacts on ecosystem services (ESs) in mining areas, which will continually increase over time and space. However, the mechanism of ES change on spatiotemporal scales post-disturbance remains unclear, especially in the context of global climate change. Here, we conducted a global literature review on the impact of two of the most frequent disturbance factors (mining and restoration) on 27 different ESs, intending to synthesize the impacts of human disturbance on ESs in mining areas via a meta-analysis, and analyze the spatiotemporal variability of ESs after disturbance. We screened 3204 disturbance studies published on the Web of Science between 1950 and 2020 and reviewed 340 in detail. The results of independence test showed that human disturbance had a significant impact on ESs in the mining areas (p < 0.001). The impacts (positive and/or negative) caused by mining and restoration differed considerably among ESs (even on the same ESs). Additionally, spatiotemporal scales of human disturbance were significantly related to spatiotemporal scales of ES change (p < 0.001). We found that the positive and negative impacts of disturbances on ESs may be interconversion under specific spatiotemporal conditions. This seems to be associated with spatiotemporal variability, such as the temporal lag, spatial spill-over, and cumulative spatiotemporal effects. Climate changes can lead to further spatiotemporal variability, which highlights the importance of understanding the changes in ESs post-disturbance on spatiotemporal scales. Our research presents recommendations for coping with the twofold pressure of climate change and spatiotemporal variability, to understand how ESs respond to human disturbance at spatiotemporal scales in the future, and manage disturbances to promote sustainable development in mining areas.