Abstract

The Greater Sudbury Region in Northern Ontario (Canada) has been one of the most contaminated regions in the world. Soil liming with dolomitic limestone applications has decreased significantly the level of soil acidity resulting in forest regeneration. This reclamation process does not affect the level of soil metal contamination but results in metals availability decrement. The coping mechanisms of birch (Betula papyrifera) to soil metal contamination have been recently characterized. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of soil liming and metal contamination on Cations Exchange Capacity (CEC) and whole DNA methylation in B. papyrifera. Cytosine and adenine methylations were measured using tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS) coupled with LC (LC-MS/MS). The present study confirms that liming increases significantly soil pH even over 30 years after dolomitic applications. There was a decrease of cations exchange capacity and cytosine methylation in metal-contaminated sites compared to uncontaminated sites. CEC was significantly higher (p≤0.05) in limed and reference distal sites compared to unlimed areas. No significant difference in cytosine methylation level was observed between metal-contaminated limed and unlimed areas. This suggests that metal contamination mostly nickel and copper, the main elements found in higher concentrations in contaminated sites might be associated with cytosine methylation.

Highlights

  • The Greater Sudbury Region (GSR) has been one of the most contaminated regions in the world

  • The present study shows that the pH values of samples from areas limed with dolomitic stones >30 years ago were significantly higher (p

  • The level of cation exchange capacity was significantly higher in limed sites compared to unlimed areas

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Summary

Introduction

The Greater Sudbury Region (GSR) has been one of the most contaminated regions in the world. Soils surrounding smelters were completely barren soon after industrialization started with only a few tree species remaining (B. papyrifera was one of the commonest) (Amiro and Courtin, 1981). To reclaim these degraded lands, soil liming and tree planting has been implemented since 1979. Betula papyrifera is a dominant tree species of the boreal forest. It is a pioneer species and rapidly colonizes open areas and it represents over 60% of tree plant species growing in the GSR. It has been reported that Betula papyrifera is sensitive to changes in soil acidity and soil metal contamination (McCall et al, 1995; Theriault et al, 2013; 2014; Mehes-Smith and Nkongolo, 2015)

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