Oil Sands Reclamation and the Soil-Microbe-Plant Contiunuum in Boreal Alberta.

Oil sands mining in northern Alberta reduces ecosystem function to zero. Industry is legally required to return ecosystem function to "equivalent" levels as per pre-mining. This means a mixture of boreal upland and lowland forests, bogs, and fens. To do this I would argue that we need a better understanding of the ecosystem ecology of intact soil-microbe-plant communities, including how these communities respond to disturbance. I would also suggest that we need new methods in soil science to determine successful reclamation of systems that do not have known nutrient requirements, or annual yield estimates, because they are managed on a multi-decadal scale and are made up of more than one species. Over the last 5 years, my lab has been examining natural and reclaimed upland forest ecosystems using a variety of modern techniques including: ionic resin analysis of soil nutrient availability, PLFA and CLPP for microbial community structure and function, and spatial statistics to try and determine benchmark conditions for successful reclamation. Things we've learned to date are that not all reclamation substrates are created equal, the boreal forest floor is alive, and that space can be used a s a surrogate for unmeasured variables.