Abstract:
Quantifying carbon storage and its economic value following mine ecological restoration is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of restoration measures and their contribution to climate mitigation. However, comparative assessments of vegetation carbon storage and associated economic value under different restoration strategies remain limited in China. In this study, the relative growth model was used to calculate plant biomass. The biomass of all organs and whole trees in each plot was calculated according to the field survey data and the biomass model, and then multiplied by the measured carbon content to obtain the carbon storage per unit area of each plot. The average carbon price of multiple carbon trading markets was used to estimate the carbon storage value of the ecological restoration vegetation in the Fengshan Park. The results indicate that (1) the effects of the three restoration techniques on species diversity and vegetation coverage provided by ecological benefits were fish-scale pit, bench cut, and hanging net spray seeding. (2) The tree layer carbon storage of the fish scale pit method was the largest (646.58 tons); in the shrub layer, the carbon storage of the fish scale pit method is also the highest (22.58 tons). In terms of the average carbon storage value per unit area, the fish scale pit method is the highest (
2173.71 yuan/hm
2), followed by hanging net spray seeding (807.91 yuan/hm
2) and bench cutting (1 467.56 yuan/hm
2). The plant biomass and carbon storage were calculated by sample plot investigating method, and it was concluded that the fish-scale pit method had significant advantages in improving biomass and carbon storage. (3) Under the domestic carbon trading price, the carbon storage value of the fish scale pit method is the highest (34 301.14 yuan); under the international carbon trading price, the fish scale pit method has the highest value of 13 973.80 yuan. These results show that the fish-scale pit not only performs well in ecological restoration, but also has high economic value. Mine ecological restoration can not only reconstruct the damaged vegetation ecosystem, but also produce a large amount of carbon storage, thus supporting the construction of a dual-carbon society.