The Ecosystem & Biodiversity group assesses impacts of mining activities on flora and fauna; develop innovative approaches to restore ecosystem services and practices that encourage recolonisation by native species; examine the resilience of ecosystems under specific disturbance regimes; discover and understand the utility of metallophyte plants; create approaches for the recovery and sustainability of disturbed land.
Here is a list of current and past projects undertaken by CERM's Ecosystem & Biodiversity group at UQ's Sustainable Minerals Institute.
Hyperspectral signatures
Hyperspectral imagery records detailed spectral reflectance signatures of plant species and other ground features. These unique spectral patterns may be used to identify plant species and/or key traits that enable mapping and monitoring of individual plants across a landscape.
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Restoration Report Card
The Restoration Report Card (RRC) is a system to evaluate rehabilitation success annually, using data from ground and remote sensing monitoring. This system allows to bridge the gap between the environmental team and decision-makers.
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Testing the Resilience of Mine Site Rehabilitation
How do engineered landscapes respond to fire? Several projects aim to test established rehabilitation by applying fire and measuring the vegetation and landform response in the years following the burn.
By using high spatial and temporal spectral imagery and LiDAR captured by drone along with ground surveys to assess fire severity and recovery, the long-term impacts on mine closure can be determined. Fires have been conducted at Curragh Mine, Glencore Newlands Mine (night burn photos) and Ensham Mine.
Plant-species detection using high-resolution drone imagery
Until recently, remote sensing techniques had limitations that impeded species-level monitoring. These limitations have been importantly overcome by the advancement of remote sensing technology, through the miniaturisation of sensors that can be mounted on drones
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Rehabilitation of mines in the Alligator Rivers Region
In collaboration with the Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist (ERISS, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment) we are developing and refining approaches to monitor the rehabilitation of current and legacy mines in the Alligator Rivers Region (ARR), in the Top End of the Northern Territory.
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Wildlife Dispersal Modelling for Road Mitigation Purposes (Kenya)
Identification of wildlife crossing locations to mitigate the effects of a proposed expressway.
The Kenya project work assesses the environmental impacts of anthropogenic activities and disturbance on ecosystems, particularly in the context of new infrastructure rather than mining.
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Elucidating the cellular distribution and pathways of nickel accumulation in tropical hyperaccumulator plant species
Hyperaccumulators are unusual plants that accumulate particular metals or metalloids in their living tissues to levels that may be orders of magnitude greater than is normal for most plants growing on similar soils. Discovering hyperaccumulators and understanding their agronomy could lead to identifying potential species to be utilized in novel phytotechnologies such as phytomining for phytoextraction of valuable metals.
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Monitoring mines and their rehabilitation success
Land monitoring is required throughout the life of a mine. It is required to understand straight-forward aspects such as the impact area of a mine or the state of its infrastructure, as well as for complex aspects such as understanding the landform and its stability (e.g. erosion) or aspects relating to its post-mine rehabilitation.
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Mapping biodiversity corridors and mine rehabilitation opportunities
Currently, some of the major threats to biodiversity are habitat loss/change and fragmentation. These processes have a synergistic effect that results in progressively smaller patches of native ecosystems, divided by anthropogenic features and/or activities (e.g. agriculture, urbanisation, patches of land divided by the road or railroad networks, etc.).
Contact us
Get in touch to learn more about our research.
Dr Lorna Hernandez Santin
Acting Group Leader of the Ecosystem & Biodiversity group
The Ecosystem & Biodiversity research group sits within the Centre for Environmental Responsibility in Mining (CERM).