Evaluating the success of revegetated metalliferous mine tailings in Manitoba and Saskatchewan
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Date
2013
Authors
Naguit, Christian
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Link and Business Media
Abstract
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.
Description
Keywords
mine tailings, plant diversity, revegetation, succession
Citation
Water, Air, and Soil Pollution