Restoring biodiversity is an important component of mine site rehabilitation. It needs to be evaluated regularly to assess success or failure of restoration methods and compliance with mine closure completion criteria. Yet vegetation dynamics in the driest part of the Succulent Karoo Biome are poorly understood. This study contributes to the question whether succession theory applies in this ecosystem by investigating 40 sites in a completely altered mining landscape and accompanying reference sites in the southern Namib within a 17-year time interval. Plant cover and species composition of the same site were compared between a field survey in 2005 and 2022. Multivariate analyses indicated that the importance of investigated environmental variables shifted between the survey periods, affecting the secondary vegetation on altered landforms as well as the undisturbed reference sites. This complicated the interpretation of perceived changes between the 2005 and 2022 surveys, making it difficult to detect successional trends. A drying of the general area is indicated which reduced species richness and cover overall and may have precipitated a change in habitat from stabilised to shifting dunes with concomitant changes to more sand-tolerant species in the southern part of the study area. These changes in both natural and secondary vegetation pose challenges when deciding on appropriate measures for restoration monitoring and setting completion criteria for mine closure.

恢复生物多样性是矿区恢复的重要组成部分。需要定期进行评估，以评估恢复方法的成功或失败以及是否符合矿山关闭完成标准。然而，人们对卡鲁多肉生物群落最干旱地区的植被动态知之甚少。本研究通过在 17 年的时间间隔内调查完全改变的采矿景观中的 40 个地点以及纳米布南部的相关参考地点，对演替理论是否适用于该生态系统的问题做出了贡献。对 2005 年和 2022 年的实地调查对同一地点的植物覆盖和物种组成进行了比较。多变量分析表明，调查环境变量的重要性在调查期间发生了变化，影响了改变地貌以及未受干扰的参考地点的次生植被。这使得对 2005 年至 2022 年调查之间感知变化的解释变得复杂，从而难以发现连续趋势。整个区域的干燥表明物种丰富度和总体覆盖度降低，并可能导致栖息地从稳定沙丘转变为移动沙丘，同时研究区域南部也出现更耐沙的物种。在决定适当的恢复监测措施和设定矿山关闭的完成标准时，自然和次生植被的这些变化提出了挑战。