Succession process and management mode of land reclamation in open-pit coal mine areas based on vegetation rehabilitation

Rehabilitated vegetation plays an important role in energy exchange and ecological cycling, and its dynamic change can characterize the extensive details of the disturbance to and the restoration of ecosystem in coal mining areas. From the points of different disturbance states of vegetation in the coal mining area, such as the undisturbed state, the coal mining disturbance state, the restoration state and the post-restoration state, six succession scenarios of the rehabilitated vegetation in coal mining areas were analyzed, including the effective restoration to maturity, inefficient restoration to maturity, effective restoration followed by degradation, effective restoration to development, inefficient restoration to development and ineffective restoration. Next, the whole life cycle of land reclamation was divided into three stages, namely the unreclaimed stage, the development stage (the initial development stage, the rapid development stage and the stable development stage) and the mature stage by simulating the development characteristics of rehabilitated vegetation in each stage. Then, judgment criteria were set for the rehabilitated vegetation in different restoration stages, and the idea for identifying the critical protection area of land reclamation in the coal mining area was put forward. On this basis, four revision modes of land reclamation management were established, including ecological conservation, ecological management and protection, ecological restoration, and ecological reconstruction. Meanwhile, application analysis was conducted based on the study area of Pingshuo Open-pit Coal Mine on the Loess Plateau. Moreover, the specific management and control measures for these four revision modes (including ecological conservation, ecological management and protection, ecological restoration, and ecological reconstruction) were concretely implemented in the dump clustering area for reclamation of Pingshuo open-pit mining area by mastering the development rules of rehabilitated vegetation and judging the adaptability level of the land reclamation model and the ecosystem succession mechanism. In addition, the succession law in dynamic development of the rehabilitated vegetation in open-pit coal mine areas was summarized, and the revision modes for strengthening the management of land reclamation were put forward, which could provide a methodological basis for promoting the construction of national green mines.