Multi-method dynamical reconstruction of the ecological impact of copper mining on Chinese historical landscapes

An 'Evaludation' of the model was performed in order to verify the applied concepts and test the integration of data as well as the conclusive generation of results. Our calculations show that while deforestation for mining was severe in the 18th and 19th century, rising populations and agricultural reclamation had a bigger impact on the clearance of forests. In addition, quantitative data for the ecological succession show that deforestation was reduced by up to 75% due to the provision of regrowing biomass. Deforested areas around the mines were either completely destroyed or of high biodiversity due to the abundance of heterogenous vegetation communities within small spaces. Lastly, two extreme scenarios were calculated which covered all positive and negative triggers of deforestation. These calculations served as reference data to evaluate model's quality: our model outputs lie within the range of comparable studies but underestimate the total deforestation reported and yet some uncertainties regarding forest fires and other uses of biomass remain. This study has led to a more holistic understanding of the interactions between copper mining and landscape ecology in Chinese history.