Identification of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi for the remediation of the Kam Kotia Mine site

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The Kam Kotia mine site near Timmins Ontario is one of the worst environmental disasters due to mining in Ontario. As a result of a very low pH and toxic levels of copper and zinc, the area surrounding the former mine site is almost devoid of plants and yearly runoffs send contaminated water into the neighbouring rivers. McIntosh Perry Consulting has been tasked with developing a re-vegetation plan for the site in an effort to contain the contamination and prevent further flow of heavy metals away from the site. They have identified a suite of plants that have been able to colonize the site, but have not looked at the community of benficial mycorrhizal fungi that reside in the soil. To help in this re-vegetation plan, we will identify the mycorrhizal fungi that reside in the soil at Kam Kotia in association with the plants that are able to tolerate the toxic conditions. We will use genomic sequencing to accurately identify the fungi and established culturing techniques to purify and cultivate the fungi. We will then test the ability of these fungi to enhance the growth of plants in contaminated soil. This project will address whether there is a community of mycorrhizal fungi that could enhance the ability of plants to grow on the contaminated soil at Kam Kotia. Ultimately the identification of these mycorrhizal fungi could have an impact on re-vegetation plans for other sites in Canada