Abstract
In abandoned mining areas, heavy metals may exist. Those heavy metals can cause physical consequences and death. Through the use of geographic information systems (GIS), the environmental diagnosis of vegetation potentially affected by the presence of very toxic heavy metals in abandoned mining areas in Extremadura was conducted. Initially, graphic and alphanumeric information was obtained from numerous sources, and the geospatial database generated was analyzed, allowing the location of abandoned mines. Subsequently, the mines were classified according to the degree of toxicity of the heavy metals that had been exploited. Then, taking into account the mines whose heavy metals were considered very toxic, a geospatial analysis was performed using concentric buffers at 1, 5, 10, 20, 40, and 60 kilometres. The results obtained made it possible to obtain thematic cartography representative of the areas potentially affected. The proportion of vegetation potentially affected, has been classified according to the existing vegetation series and climatic belts.
TopBackground
When the vegetation of a specific territory is analyzed, it is also necessary to establish its relationship with the environmental aspects that affect its spatial and temporal structure, the climate being of particular relevance. It will fundamentally limit or favor the implantation and development of some species over others. The ecological science that studies the relationship between the climate and the distribution of living beings and their communities on the planet is known as Bioclimatology. This discipline began to be structured based on relating the numerical values of climatic variables, temperature, and precipitation, with the distribution areas presented by plants and their plant formations, to add information on biogeocenoses later. Various authors (Rivas Goday, 1955; Daget, 1977; Rivas-Martínez, 1987), using precipitation and temperature data, establish these relationships through a group of indices, such as thermic, ombrotype, Mediterranean or continentality, among others.
Regarding these indices, Rivas-Martínez (1987) developed the so-called Bioclimatic belts. Those are bioclimatic units with their entity, and that follow one another in strips or belts depending on environmental factors. In other words, this variation is going to be produced in parallel to an environmental gradient. The substitution of some adjacent plant communities by others arranged according to environmental factors will give rise to a phenomenon of replacement that will give origin to the different landscapes of a territory. Therefore, it is necessary to relate vegetation to the physical environment and highlight the distribution patterns that it presents throughout the land. Phytosocilogy, is understood as “the science of plant communities” (Rivas-Martínez, 1987), establishing different categories or classifications ranging from major to minor extensions, including Kingdom, Region, Province, and Sector (Rivas-Martínez, 2005; Espirito-Santo et al., 2017; Rivas-Martínez et al., 2017).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Vegetation Series: Set of related plant formations, which include all the substitution and degradation stages of a formation considered as the head of the series.
Geographic Information System: Information system that makes it possible to model reality using at least one vector or raster data model, where graphic information and alphanumeric information are related in a one-to-one way. This system allows to store, model, and analyze the geographic reality.
Phytosociological: Branch of plant ecology that deals with the composition, distribution, characteristics, and interrelationships of plant species living in plant communities.
Bioclimatic Belt: Strips of elevation converted into climatic belts that support the series of vegetation and biological content in the ecosystems.
Environmental Units: Define the homogeneous zones of natural ecosystems and identify the possibilities and problems for development.
Metalogenetic: It comes from metallogenesis, which is the study of the genesis of mineral deposits, and their spatial and temporal relationships with regional geological features.
Biogeographic Regions: Represent large areas of the earth's surface where plants and animals developed in relative isolation for long periods.