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Testing the moss layer transfer technique on mineral well pads constructed in peatlands

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A Correction to this article was published on 28 May 2018

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Abstract

Peatlands are abundant in the boreal region of Canada but little is known about their restoration on oil sands well pads. The goal of this study is to compare the reintroduction of different peatland plant communities and substrate amendments/decompaction in order to rehabilitate peatland vegetation on former in situ well pads constructed in wetlands. One field experiment tested which peatland plant communities (Shrubby Rich Fen, Treed Rich Fen) would best colonize different substrates (sawdust, clay loam, mix sawdust-clay, peat, surface roughness). We found that the moss layer transfer technique (MLTT) facilitated the establishment of peatland communities on residual mineral soil used to construct the pad, when shaved back to an average water level of the surrounding wetland. The choice of peatland plant community is key to the introduction of bryophytes. Peat amendment facilitated the establishment of plants, whereas soil decompaction had no effect. The MLTT is a promising approach to restore fen plants on well pads. We recommend a scale-up experiment for a whole well site to test the validity of MLTT along different pad removal techniques.

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Change history

  • 28 May 2018

    In the original publication, the Table 1 was published incorrectly. The correct version of Table 1 is given in this correction. The original article has been corrected.

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Acknowledgements

This project was funded by a Shell Canada operating grant to the Boreal Research Center. A special thank you to Ken Zaitzoff (Shell Canada) for facilitating the field work operations and to Jean-Marie Sobze and Amanda Schoonmaker for many discussions to improve field work. We would also like to thank the field assistants (Aaron Tutt and Halley Coxson) who worked relentlessly during set up and data collection phases of this project. The authors also wish to thank Maria Strack, Dale Vitt and an anonymous reviewer for useful comments on earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Sciences and Centre for Northern Studies, Université Laval, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Marie-Eve Gauthier, Line Rochefort & Sandrine Hugron

  2. NAIT Boreal Research Institute, Peace River, AB, T8S 1R2, Canada

    Leonie Nadeau & Bin Xu

Authors
  1. Marie-Eve Gauthier
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  2. Line Rochefort
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  3. Leonie Nadeau
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  4. Sandrine Hugron
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  5. Bin Xu
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Correspondence to Line Rochefort.

Additional information

Nomenclature follows VASCAN, the Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (Brouillet et al. 2010+) for vascular plants and Flora of North America (1993+) for bryophytes.

The original version of this article was revised: The Table 1 was updated.

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Gauthier, ME., Rochefort, L., Nadeau, L. et al. Testing the moss layer transfer technique on mineral well pads constructed in peatlands. Wetlands Ecol Manage 26, 475–487 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-017-9532-4

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