V4 region sampling of the oil sands waste remediation site Base Mine Lake, in Northern Alberta.. Base Mine Lake

Base Mine Lake is an end-pit lake (EPL) in Northern Alberta, Canada. When bitumen is extracted from oil sands, the resulting waste is a liquid called tailings, which contain residual bitumen, heavy metals, salts, and napthenic acids. These tailings are settled into a thick sediment layer and covered with fresh water to form an end-pit lake. The samples in this study are from three platforms at three depths, over the summer of 2015, and amplified using eukaryote-specific primers.