Tundra vegetation recovery on 30 year-old seeded and unseeded drilling mud sumps in the Mackenzie River Delta region, NWT

Abstract

Oil and gas exploration conducted in the 1970s left behind a legacy of abandoned well sites in the Mackenzie Delta region of northern Canada, including several in the Kendall Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary and surrounding areas. Evidence of 30 year-old well sites is present in the form of drilling mud sumps, which are mounds of disturbed tundra that contain frozen drilling-wastes. One to two years after the wells were decommissioned some of the sites were seeded with non-native grass species and fertilized to test whether these treatments could accelerate vegetation recovery and prevent erosion. The main objective of this research was to examine the long-term impact of post-disturbance seeding treatments on the vegetation recovery of drilling mud sumps.

Surveys of vegetation composition and environmental conditions at 12 sump sites (6 seeded and 6 unseeded) showed that, after over 30 years of recovery, seeded sumps in the Mackenzie Delta did not significantly differ from those left for natural recovery. However, seeded and previously introduced grasses Festuca rubra and Poa pratensis were found on both seeded and unseeded sumps. The undisturbed surrounding tundra seems to be resistant to invasion by these introduced grasses. However, these species could become invasive in the future, particularly in the context of warming in the North and increasing anthropogenic disturbance. The results of this study contribute valuable information on the long-term effects of revegetation treatments that is critical for making informed management decisions about the rehabilitation of industrial disturbances in the Arctic.