Responses of reclamation plants to enhanced non-segregated tailings

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Oil sands mining reclamation is highly challenging due to the severity of land disturbance and challenging growth conditions for reclamation plants. The disturbed areas include oil sands tailings, which pose additional challenge for the revegetation efforts. The tailings have commonly elevated levels of compounds that may be harmful to plants. To deal with these challenges, Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) has been working on new approaches that are intended to minimize the effects of tailings on plants in reclaimed areas. These efforts have resulted in a recent development of the novel tailings technology. These novel tailings are referred to as enhanced non-segregated tailings (eNST) and enhanced-spiked non-segregated tailings (esNST). Although these tailings have important advantages to the industrial production, the potential impact of the composition of this novel tailings technology on the growth of plant communities that will be planted in soil capping layers on top of the tailings. In the proposed project, we will characterize the chemical and physical properties of eNST and esNST tailings and study under controlled-environment conditions, their effects on growth and physiological processes in plants that are commonly used for oil sands reclamation. We will also compare the effects of eNST and esNST deposits and release waters on plant survival, growth, and physiological responses. The main objective of the study is to generate knowledge that is required to develop optimal strategies for the reclamation eNST tailings. The specific objectives of the study are to 1) characterize the effects and potential toxicity of short-term exposure of plants to eNST tailings and compare them with the effects of esNST tailings, 2) develop a thorough understanding of the factors in eNST that may adversely affect plant growth and survival, and 3) examine the impact of eNST tailings on ectomycorrhizal and ericoid mycorrhizal associations that are essential for the survival of plants in reclamation areas. The project will train two MSc students, three undergraduate summer students (one undergraduate student per year of the study), and a postdoctoral research associate.