Peat-based soil amendments enhance long-term soil-plant-microbe recovery in boreal mine reclamation

This study investigates how different soil amendment strategies influence vegetation growth, soil fertility, and microbial community recovery in a boreal mine site. A nine-year field experiment was conducted at the Detour Lake Mine in Ontario, Canada, testing peat, biosolids, fertilizer, and plant cover treatments individually and in combination. 16S rRNA sequencing was used to characterize bacterial community structure and functional responses across treatments and recovery stages.