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SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND LANDSCAPE IMPACT ANALYSIS OF QUARRYING IN A
HIGHLY FRAGMENTED ECOSYSTEM
Irati Carabia-Sanz, María V. Simoy, Agustina Cortelezzi, Clara
Trofino-Falasco & Igor Berkunsky
Instituto Multidisciplinario sobre Ecosistemas y Desarrollo Sustentable,
UNICEN - CICPBA, Paraje Arroyo Seco s/n, Tandil (7000), Argentina.
Correspondence: Irati Carabia-Sanz, Instituto Multidisciplinario sobre
Ecosistemas y Desarrollo Sustentable, UNICEN - CICPBA, Paraje Arroyo
Seco s/n, Tandil (7000), Argentina.
Email:irati.casanz@gmail.com
KEY WORDS: Environmental threats; quarries; habitat destruction; native
ecosystem; land cover change; conservation.
Running title: Impact of quarries in a fragmented ecosystem.
Acknowledgments: The authors are grateful for funding from the
Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires
(03-PIO-65H). We would like to thank Felisa for their commentaries and
support. I. Carabia-Sanz was supported by fellowships from the Comisión
de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (CICPBA).
A. Cortelezzi, M.V. Simoy and I Berkunsky are Research Fellows of
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de Argentina
CONICET.
ABSTRACT - Quarrying generates significant changes in the
grasslands, by reducing ecological functions, reducing connectivity,
impairing biodiversity, and degrading soil. Unlike other forms of
destruction such as agriculture or urbanization, mining is characterized
by eliminating soil and exposing the bedrock, facilitating groundwater
contamination processes. Quarrying in Pampean grassland has been
expanding for a century and little is known about the extent and
distribution of quarries over the native environment.
In this work, we analyze the spatiotemporal variation of quarrying
activity on the Highland grassland in the Tandilia mountains of
Argentina. Based on Landsat 5, 7, and 8 satellite imagery, from 1996 to
2022, and using QGIS software, we identified the location and extension
of quarries, and we analyzed their change through time. Quarries covered
6428 ha, which was originally part of the Pampean grassland. The number
of open quarries increased by 129%, from 69 in 1996 to 158 in 2022, and
the area used for this activity increased by 172%, with a greater
expansion being detected in the last ten years. At least 87 quarries
were abandoned in 2022. Quarries are often abandoned without any kind of
remediation, leading to further ecosystem deterioration. The current
extension of quarrying activity (active and abandoned quarries) reduced
the connectivity and a significant area (5.2%) of the Highland
grassland of the Tandilia Mountains. Grassland conservation planning
should include quarrying as a significant threat, and management actions
must be considered to reduce its impact.
KEY WORDS: Environmental threats; quarries; habitat destruction; native
ecosystem; land cover change; conservation.
INTRODUCTION
Quarrying is an extractive activity that causes major environmental
changes in grasslands (Lameed & Ayodele, 2010; Gbedzi et al., 2022).
The environmental impacts of these changes range from pre-operational
mining activities (e.g., construction of access roads, conduits, and
installation of drains and ditches) to the mining activity itself (e.g.,
creation of openings, perforation, blasting, machinery movements; Matías
et al., 2007; Souza & Sánchez, 2018). Quarrying impacts result in
severe modifications of land cover at the local scale and affect the
whole environment, including the lithosphere (rock excavation and
geomorphic changes of the landscape), atmosphere (dust and air
pollution), hydrosphere (changes in surface water), and biosphere
(habitat destruction and biodiversity loss; Lameed & Ayodele, 2010;
Bétard, 2013). The habitat destruction and fragmentation severely reduce
the grassland’s ability to provide ecosystem services with severe
impacts on the native flora and fauna surrounding the quarries (Sala et
al., 2010). For example, in areas affected, successional processes
cannot proceed and are stuck at the early stages of colonization, mainly
due to thin topsoil, without seed banks and rootstocks (Flavenot et al.,
2015; Lamare & Singh, 2016).
The rapid population growth coupled with industrialization has increased
tremendous pressure on natural resources resulting in the rapid
exploitation of mineral resources worldwide (Bhatnagar et al., 2014).
For example, in Lebanon, quarrying had an increase of 117% in 20 years
(Darwish et al., 2011), while Bijolia (India) showed an increase of
3570% in land use from 1971 to 1992 (Sinha et al., 2000) and Odublasi
quarry in Ghana 107,66% increase from 2007 to 2014 (Koranteng &
Adu-Asare, 2018). Even when quarrying affects small areas at the
regional scale (e.g.; less than 1% of French national territory;
Bernaud & Le Bloch, 1998), this extractive activity still has important
consequences on the local scale (Flavenot et al., 2014). There is a gap
in scientific knowledge about increased quarrying activity on
Neotropical native grasslands (Le Stradic et al., 2014). Moreover, in
the Neotropic, there are no guidelines that decision-makers can follow
to reduce the negative effects of this activity and its abandonment by
carrying out environmental impact studies or ecological restoration
projects (Figueiredo et al., 2023).
In the Pampa ecoregion, one of the largest grassland regions of the
world, the effect of quarries has been overlooked, and the evolution of
this activity could be following the global trend. The quarrying
activity in Pampa has more than a century of history, and the number of
deposits and the number of grassland remnants affected by the activity
increased in the last decade (Secretaría de Minería, 2020).
Considering the overall context, the general objective of this study is
to accomplish a spatiotemporal analysis of habitat loss due to opencast
mining activities in the Tandilia mountains, southern of the Pampean
ecoregion. Our specific objectives were: (1) to identify the locations
where quarrying takes place, (2) to determine the area of active and
inactive quarries, their expansion speed, and their evolution over the
last 20 years, and (3) to assess the impact of the extractive activity
on the landscape. These objectives are achieved by obtaining Landscape
5, 7, and 8 satellite images and processing them with Geographic
Information Systems (QGIS 3.24.2).
MATERIALS AND METHODS