Bitumen recovery from oil sands in northeastern Alberta, Canada produces large volumes of tailings, which are deposited in mining areas that must be reclaimed upon mine closure. A new technology of non-segregated tailings (NST) developed by Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) was designed to accelerate the process of oil sands fine tailings consolidation. However, effects of these novel tailings on plants used for the reclamation of oil sands mining areas remain to be determined. In the present study, we investigated the effects of NST on seedlings of three species of plants commonly planted in oil sands reclamation sites including paper birch (Betula papyrifera), white spruce (Picea glauca) and green alder (Alnus viridis). In the controlled-environment study, we grew seedlings directly in NST and in the two types of reclamation soils with and without added NST and we measured seedling growth, gas exchange parameters, as well as tissue concentrations of selected elements and foliar chlorophyll. White spruce seedlings suffered from severe mortality when grown directly in NST and their needles contained high concentrations of Na. The growth and physiological processes were also inhibited by NST in green alder and paper birch. However, the addition of top soil and peat mineral soil mix to NST significantly improved the growth of plants, possibly due to a more balanced nutrient uptake. It appears that NST may offer some advantages in terms of site revegetation compared with the traditional oil sands tailings that were used in the past. The results also suggest that, white spruce may be less suitable for planting at reclamation sites containing NST compared with the two studied deciduous tree species.

从加拿大艾伯塔省东北部的油砂中回收沥青会产生大量的尾矿，这些尾矿沉积在必须关闭矿山的矿区中。加拿大自然资源有限公司（CNRL）开发了一种新的非隔离尾矿（NST）技术，旨在加速油砂细尾矿固结的过程。然而，这些新型尾矿对用于油砂矿区开垦的植物的影响尚待确定。在本研究中，我们调查了NST对通常在油砂开垦区种植的三种植物的幼苗的影响，这些物种包括白桦（Betula papyrifera），白云杉（Picea glauca）和绿al木（Alnus viridis））。在受控环境研究中，我们在NST和两种添加或不添加NST的填海土壤中直接种植幼苗，我们测量了幼苗的生长，气体交换参数以及所选元素和叶绿素的组织浓度。当直接在NST中生长时，白云杉幼苗会严重死亡，其针中含有高浓度的Na。NST在绿al木和白桦树中也抑制了生长和生理过程。但是，将表层土壤和泥炭矿物土壤混合物添加到NST中可以显着改善植物的生长，这可能是由于更均衡的养分吸收所致。与过去使用的传统油砂尾矿相比，NST在场地植被恢复方面可能会提供一些优势。结果还表明，