Reclaimed Oil Sands Exploration sites Alberta - Carbon Flux and Environmental Variables

A natural site was also studied (NAT). Plots were named as follows, based on management technique at the OSE sites: control with no reclamation technique (C), wet control (C-w), coarse woody debris additions (CWD), mechanical mounding and planting trees, mound (M-m), mechanical mounding and planting trees, pool (M-p), planting trees only (PAI).

Carbon dioxide and methane flux measurements made between May and September of 2017 and 2018 using the closed chamber method. Measurements for water table depth (WT - negative means depth below the surface) and soil temperature at 2 cm depth (T2) to 20 cm depth (T20) were made adjacent to each flux plot at the time of a carbon dioxide or methane measurement. GEP (gross ecosystem productivity) is the difference between NEE (net ecosystem exchange) and ER (ecosystem respiration), and negative GEP and NEE values represent a sink of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the soil.