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Evaluating the success of revegetated metalliferous mine tailings in Manitoba and Saskatchewan

Revegetation is employed to mitigate the spread of mine tailings in the environment by ameliorating tailings with organics to promote plant cover. Revegetation has proven to be successful in establishing plant cover, but the long-term effects are largely unknown. A field study was conducted to evaluate the success of four artificially revegetated tailings from Manitoba by comparing plant cover and diversity. Central Manitoba, Flin Flon, and Thompson had moderate cover while cover was low in Lynn Lake. All four sites had low diversity and were composed of early-successional species. The results suggest that while current revegetation methods promote plant growth on tailings, it is currently difficult to determine if and how the vegetation will progress from a grass-legume community to a boreal forest. In addition, while various amounts of effort were invested into each site, the results indicate the degree of remediation does not affect overall success.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:MWU.1993/23291
Date January 2013
CreatorsNaguit, Christian
ContributorsMarkham, John (Biological Sciences) Renault, Sylvie (Biological Sciences), Goldsborough, Gordon (Biological Sciences) Zvomuya, Francis (Soil Science)
PublisherSpringer Link and Business Media
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
Detected LanguageEnglish

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