Why is this research important to Alberta?

• Following oil sands extraction, either in situ or mining-based, by law the land must be reclaimed to equivalent land capability.
• When oil is extracted, the land is heavily disturbed, and topsoil is removed and either used at another site right away or stockpiled for later use in reclamation.
• While this soil is essential for restoring forests, long storage times and disturbance can reduce its quality, harming its ability to support healthy plants and ecosystems.
• To optimize the storage and use of soils for reclamation, we need to be able to determine quickly and accurately determine soil health.

What is the goal of this work? How will genomics be used?

In collaboration with our oil sands industry partner, we will:

• Use genomic tools to examine the microorganisms that live in oil sands topsoils and play key roles in supporting plant growth, nutrient cycling, and overall soil function.
• Combine genomic information with traditional soil health and plant growth measurements and machine learning based modelling to create an Ecosystem Functional Similarity Index (EFSI).
• This index will compare reclaimed sites to nearby natural forests, showing how close they are to functioning like healthy ecosystems.
• Use machine learning approaches to produce a smaller set of Bioindicators of Reclamation Trajectory (BRT) that companies can use as a quick and cost-effective check on reclamation progress.

The outcomes will provide industry with powerful new tools to monitor reclamation success, adjust management practices such as soil handling and amendments, and demonstrate environmental stewardship.

What are the expected benefits, and how will the research findings be shared?

We are working closely with oil sands industry partners to provide samples, background data, and contextual understanding for the ESRI and BRT. Our industry partners are also committed to utilizing these tools to help optimize their reclamation protocols.

The adoption of these approaches/tools will:

• Improve sustainability by maximizing reclaimed soil health and determining reclamation trajectory.
• Help derisk reclamation, improving reclamation outcomes and allowing broader use of reclaimed forests.

Data will be made publicly available and will be published in academic journals as well as provided to oil sands producers in fliers and brochures.

Related Resources

Related information can be accessed through:

• Research publication: Impact of stockpile depth and storage time on soil microbial communities
• Research publication: Influence of predictors and assembly processes in the structure of microbial communities in disturbed soil ecosystems
• Research publication: Impact of stockpiling on soil fungal communities and their functions
• Research publication: The impact of reclamation and vegetation removal on compositional and functional attributes of soil microbial communities in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region
• Research publication: Using a nutrient profile index to assess reclamation strategies in the Athabasca oil sands region of northern Alberta
• Research publication: Evaluating foliar nutrient concentration as an indicator of soil nutrients in reclaimed and natural forests in Alberta, Canada
• Research publication: Revegetation of disturbed land reclaimed with suboptimal topsoil replacement depth and organic amendments
• Research publication: Soil properties following borrow pit reclamation with insufficient topsoil amended with peat and biochar
• Field manual: Land capability classification system for forest ecosystems in the oil sands
• Governing guidelines: Government of Alberta Land reclamation and remediation – Legislation and guidelines