Monitoring land reclamation and ecosystem sustainability in the Greater Sudbury Region

一个合作研究项目于2005年启动，由NSERC，淡水河谷有限公司和嘉能可资助。前两个阶段对大萨德伯里地区填海土地可持续性评估的主要结果可以概括为：1)人为金属含量的生物可利用部分非常小；2)土壤酸度和生物可利用铝是植物生长的主要限制因子；3)鉴定了GSR中可能适合植物修复的物种；4)关键针叶树种群具有长期可持续性，但红松是显著的例外；5)区域植树活动增加了松林种群的遗传变异；6)观察到的阔叶木种群遗传变异为中等至高，表明长期可持续性；7)石灰化似乎改善了森林种群的总体健康状况，在GSR的石灰化地点和远端比较地点之间的差异仍然明显；8)总体而言，金属污染样地的森林健康状况和生物多样性较差。该项目的最后阶段旨在1)确定GSR森林生态系统长期可持续性中地上植物多样性和土壤微生物多样性之间的关系；2)确定影响土壤微生物多样性的管理措施和因素。初步研究表明，微生物活动和土壤健康可以使用简单的成本效益技术进行评估。在本提案中，土壤微生物多样性和丰度将使用最新技术的混合物：磷脂脂肪酸分析（PLFA）和大基因组学对所有站点进行详细分析。微生物功能将通过土壤呼吸和酶分析进行评估。预计这项完整研究的结果将为利益相关者提供与陆地生态系统生态可持续性和GSR风险管理方法成功相关的区域地图。更重要的是，该项目将培养一批高素质人才。

A collaborative research project was initiated in 2005 with funding from NSERC, Vale - Limited and Glencore. Key results from the initial two phases that focused on assessing the sustainability of reclaimed lands in the Greater Sudbury Region (GSR) can be summarized as follows: 1) the bioavailable portion of the anthropogenic metal content is very small; 2) soil acidity (pH) and bioavailable aluminum appear to be the key limiting factors for plant growth in the ecosystems studied; 3) species potentially suitable for phytoremediation in the GSR were identified and characterized; 4) key conifer populations are sustainable for the long term, with red pine being the notable exception; 5) the regional tree planting initiatives have increased the genetic variability for the pine populations; 6) the observed genetic variations in the hardwood populations are moderate to high indicating long term sustainability; 7) liming appears to have improved overall forest population health, with differences between limed sites in the GSR and distal comparison sites being still discernible; and 8) Overall, metal contaminated sites show poor forest health and biodiversity compared to distal comparison sites.This final leg of the program aims at 1) determining the association between above ground plant diversity and soil microbial diversity for long term forest ecosystem sustainability in the GSR and 2) identifying management practices and factors affecting soil microbial diversity. Preliminary study related to the current proposal for few sites revealed that microbial activity and soil health can be assessed using simple cost-effective techniques. In the present proposal, soil microbial diversity and abundance will be analyzed in details for all the sites using a cocktail of updated techniques: phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) and megagenomics. Microbial functions will be assessed using soil respiration and enzymatic assays. It is expected that the results of this complete study will provide to stakeholders a regional map related to the ecological sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems and the success of risk management approaches in the GSR. More importantly, the project will train a number of highly qualified personnel.