115-9 Plant Survival During Freezing of Gold Mine Residues.



Monday, October 17, 2011: 3:25 PM
Henry Gonzalez Convention Center, Room 217C, Concourse Level

Suzanne Allaire1, Liwen Han2, Pierre Dutilleul2 and Steeve Pepin1, (1)Laval University, Ste-Foy, QC, Canada
(2)Plant Science, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
Plants grown to cover over mine residues may die during cold winters during establishment years. In particular, the roots may decay because of a lack of oxygen in wet conditions. Festuca rubra sp. was directly seeded in gold mine residues and grown for four months after which they were transferred to larger pots. They were placed in an environmentally controlled chamber for vernalization during three months. Plants were then exposed to frozen conditions during another three months before thawing. A macropore was hand made to favor aeration in half of the pots. Roots and residues were submitted to computed tomography (CT) scanning before, during and after freezing. Relationships between root system parameters, macroporosity and residue properties will be discussed.
See more from this Division: S01 Soil Physics
See more from this Session: Micro- and Macro-Scale Water Dynamics In Unsaturated Soil Mechanics and Porous Media