This project is a pilot study to assess the viability of transplantation as a technique to establish reindeer lichens on reclaimed areas of oil sands surface mines in the Athabasca region of Alberta. There were two components to this study: a) a lichen transplant trial, where I investigated which commonly available substrates found in reclaimed forest sites would promote the best lichen fragment survival and vigour for a lichen ‘seeding’ program; and b) a diversity assessment of the reclaimed site to compare the existing cryptogam community with the expected community for the target ecosite based on published descriptions from the surrounding native forests and documented chronosequences for terrestrial lichen communities. In July 2009, Cladonia mitis was transplanted into 54 plots on three sites that were planted with jack pine or spruce 12 or 24 years ago, respectively, on the Suncor Millenium/Steepbank Mine (Suncor Mine) This trial was designed to investigate possible short-term indicators of successful lichen establishment and the effect of substrate (moss, litter, or soil) on the establishment of transplanted lichen thallus fragments. The indicators of lichen establishment evaluated were vigour, movement from plots, photographic areal cover, and microscopic growth (hyphal growth, annual growth and lateral branching). After two growing seasons, the effect of substrate on lichen transplant survival varied by site; there was no significant difference in lichen fragment retention in plots by substrate on the 24-year old sites, but median fragment retention was significantly higher on moss and litter substrates than soil on the 12-year old site. There was also no significant difference in fragment vigour between substrates on each site, except on the south-facing 24-year-old forest site where average vigour was significantly higher on moss plots than on soil plots. Photographic areal measurement is not recommended as a short-term lichen establishment monitoring tool for transplanted fragments based on the difficulties encountered using the method for this trial. Forty-one percent of the fragments collected for microscopic assessment after the first growing season had grown hyphae, 23 percent of the fragments collected during September 2009 and September 2010 had formed apothecia, and 31 percent of the fragments collected in September 2010 had grown lateral branches.
The results of the biodiversity assessment were compared with the successional communities previously described for spruce- and pine-lichen boreal forests. There were no lichens found on the 12-year-old site, though the cup lichens were common to abundant on the 24-year-old sites, which is consistent with the cryptogammic community expected for a regenerating natural site of that age. Cladonia mitis was also present but rare to uncommon on the 24-year-old site, while Cladonia stellaris, Cladonia rangiferina and Cladonia stygia that, together with C. mitis, are indicative of the al and c1 ecosites of the Central Mixedwood Boreal forest, were not present.