Innovation Anthology #395:
Gardeners know most plants won’t grow in salty or acid soil.
This same principle seems to apply to what kind of plants will grow in wetlands.
Marie-Claude Roy is a PhD student at the University of Alberta. Her research shows a big difference in vegetation between natural wetlands and reclaimed oil sands ponds.
Water chemistry is a contributing factor.
MARIE-CLAUDE ROY: There’s a beautiful paper written by Susan Bayley who is a professor at the University of Alberta who definitely shows that salinity in this tailings water is quite high and definitely affects vegetation composition because obviously plant species are very, very specific about salinity and their tolerance to it. So this is a big element that is really important because obviously the tailings water is really high in salinity and this will definitely affect vegetation that we can find. So this is one thing, one element of the water chemistry. And there’s still some studies that are going on right now that are testing specifically other components of that water. But again, I think we are really at an early stage right now.
Marie-Claude Roy says the next step is to uncover the specific reasons why plants are not doing well and apply that in the field.
Thanks today to Syncrude Canada Ltd
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
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Sponsor
Syncrude
Program Date: 2011-05-03