Many forested landscapes around the world are severely altered during mining for their rich mineral and energy reserves. Herein we provide an overview of the challenges inherent in efforts to restore mined landscapes to functioning forest ecosystems and present a synthesis of recent progress using examples from North America, Europe and Australia. We end with recommendations for further elaboration of the Forestry Reclamation Approach emphasizing: (1) Landform reconstruction modelled on natural systems and creation of topographic heterogeneity at a variety of scales; (2) Use and placement of overburden, capping materials and organic amendments to facilitate soil development processes and create a suitable rooting medium for trees; (3) Alignment of landform, topography, overburden, soil and tree species to create a diversity of target ecosystem types; (4) Combining optimization of stock type and planting techniques with early planting of a diversity of tree species; (5) Encouraging natural regeneration as much as possible; (6) Utilizing direct placement of forest floor material combined with seeding of native species to rapidly re-establish native forest understory vegetation; (7) Selective ongoing management to encourage development along the desired successional trajectory.

A number of operationally defined methods exist for pretreating plant tissues in order to measure C, N, and O isotopes. Because these isotope measurements are used to infer information about environmental conditions that existed at the time of tissue growth, it is important that these pretreatments remove compounds that may have exchanged isotopes or have been synthesized after the original formation of these tissues. In stable isotope studies, many pretreatment methods focus on isolating "cellulose" from the bulk tissue sample because cellulose does not exchange C and O isotopes after original synthesis. We investigated the efficacy of three commonly applied pretreatment methods, the Brendel method and two variants of the Brendel method, the Jayme-Wise method and successive acid/base/acid washes, for use on three tissue types (wood, leaves, roots). We then compared the effect of each method on C and O isotope composition ( 13 C, 14 C, 18 O), C and N content, and chemical composition of the residue produced (using 13 C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)). Our results raised concerns over use of the Brendel method as published, as it both added C and N to the sample and left a residue that contains remnant lipids and waxes. Furthermore, this method resulted in 18 O values that are enriched relative to the other methods. Modifying the Brendel method by adding a NaOH step (wash) solved many of these problems. We also found that processed residues vary by tissue type. For wood and root tissues, the 13 C NMR spectra and the 18 O and 13 C data showed only small differences between residues for the Jayme-Wise and

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During oil-sands mining all vegetation, soil, overburden, and oil sand is removed, leaving pits several kilometers wide and up to 100 m deep. These pits are reclaimed through a variety of treatments using subsoil or a mixed peat-mineral soil cap. Using nonmetric multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis of measurements of ecosystem function, reclamation treatments of several age classes were compared with a range of natural forest ecotypes to discover which treatments had created ecosystems similar to natural forest ecotypes and at what age this occurred. Ecosystem function was estimated from bioavailable nutrients, plant community composition, litter decomposition rate, and development of a surface organic layer. On the reclamation treatments, availability of nitrate, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur were generally higher than in the natural forest ecotypes, while ammonium, P, K, and Mn were generally lower. Reclamation treatments tended to have more bare ground, grasses, and forbs but less moss, lichen, shrubs, trees, or woody debris than natural forests. Rates of litter decomposition were lower on all reclamation treatments. Development of an organic layer appeared to be facilitated by the presence of shrubs. With repeated applications of fertilizers, measured variables for the peat-mineral amendments fell within the range of natural variability at about 20 yr. An intermediate subsoil layer reduced the need for fertilizer and conditions resembling natural forests were reached about 15 yr after a single fertilizer application. Treatments over tailings sand receiving only one application of fertilizer appeared to be on a different trajectory to a novel ecosystem.

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Soil organic matter (SOM) is a central contributor to soil quality as it mediates many of the chemical, physical, and biological processes controlling the capacity of a soil to perform successfully. SOM properties (e.g. C/N ratio, macro-organic matter) have been proposed as diagnostic criteria of overall soil ®tness, but their use is hampered by a poor understanding of the basic biochemical principles underlying SOM processes. The objective of this project was to determine the in¯uence of scrub oak (Quercus dumosa Nutt.) and Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri B. Don) vegetation on decomposition and SOM formation processes in a lysimeter installation constructed in 1936 in the San Gabriel mountains of southern California. Soil samples archived during construction of the installation, and A horizons sampled in 1987, were fractionated according to density and mineral particle size to isolate the water¯oatable (macro-organic matter), ®ne silt and clay fractions. Carbon turnover rates were determined on all fractions from AMS 14 C measurements. Solid state CPMAS TOSS 13 C NMR was used to semiquantitatively characterize the chemical structure of organic matter on fresh litter and soil fractions. For the two soils, there was a progressive decrease in O-alkyl C, and an increase in alkyl and carbonyl C from the litter to the¯oatable, ®ne silt and clay fractions. These compositional differences were due to the oxidative degradation of the litter material, with preferential decomposition of the cellulose and hemicellulose entities and selective preservation of recalcitrant waxes and resins. In all soil fractions, turnover rates of carbon were longer for the pine than for the oak lysimeter (up to 10 times longer). Also under pine, there was a gradual increase in turnover rate progressing from the¯oatable to the clay fraction, and differences in turnover rates among fractions may be explained based on differences in carbon chemistry. In contrast, under oak, rapid carbon turnover for all fractions suggested intense biological activity in this soil.

Phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) are key components of microbial cell membranes. The analysis of PLFAs extracted from soils can provide information about the overall structure of terrestrial microbial communities. PLFA profiling has been extensively used in a range of ecosystems as a biological index of overall soil quality, and as a quantitative indicator of soil response to land management and other environmental stressors.