Investigating Abiotic and Biotic Vertical Structures as a Potential Revegetation Strategy for Semi-Arid Subarctic Mine Sites, in Central Yukon Territory, Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Escalating ecosystem degradation has prompted global efforts in ecological restoration, particularly in post-mining landscapes where failure to establish functioning ecosystems can have adverse effects on adjacent ecosystems threatening biodiversity, food security, and water supply. Ecological restoration of mine sites located in subarctic boreal regions pose additional challenges due to semi-arid conditions, emphasizing the need for strategies to manage soil-water dynamics. This thesis studies the application of abiotic (i.e., artificial snow fences of different heights) and biotic (i.e., planted hedgerows of different native shrub species) vertical structures as a revegetation strategy for overburden (i.e., unconsolidated topsoil, subsoil, sand, gravel and rock removed during ore extraction) at a mine site in central Yukon Territory, Canada. The first study examines the influence of vertical structure type (i.e., abiotic vs. biotic), their height, and the distance from structure on soil volumetric water content, soil temperature, and the survival and growth of planted fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium) and Canada bluejoint (Calamagrostis canadensis) seedlings. Vertical structure effectiveness depended on structure type, height, porosity, and orientation, with structure type significantly affecting volumetric water content. Soil-water dynamics across the site strongly influenced the survival and growth of planted seedlings, with fireweed biomass showing trends with distance from snow fences. The second study examines the influence of vertical structure type, their height, and the distance from structure on soil volumetric water content, soil temperature, and the community composition of natural plant recolonization. Three years after reclamation, community composition varied significantly across the site, driven by soil volumetric water content, temperature, and gradients in overburden texture and nutrients. Although vertical structures did not significantly influence the plant community, distance-related trends suggested emerging effects of taller vertical structures on species cover and of structure type on species richness and diversity. Overall, multiple environmental gradients across the site strongly influenced natural recolonization at this stage of development, limiting the effects of the structures. Together the findings from both studies support the potential of vertical structures as a revegetation strategy by demonstrating their ability to modify the soil microclimate. This research highlights plant species suitable for boreal revegetation and the aptitude of plant species to naturally recolonize overburden at subarctic mine sites. However, species cover, richness and diversity remained below the typical range for boreal ecosystems three years post-reclamation, indicating that active intervention may be required to support long-term reclamation objectives.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".