Progress 05/15/07 to 05/14/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Accomplishments in Phase I include: Collection of plant material from 15 desirable plant species from 5 unique sites in Southwestern Montana. These sites include key riparian sites, upland sites and one steep slope mountain site. Establishing an outstanding collaboration with the Reclamation Research Group LLC, Bozeman, Montana, and beginning greenhouse production of three species with Westscape Wholesale Nursery, Belgrade, Montana. Of the 15 plant species collected,6 are growing in clean culture, of which 3 are in greenhouse rooting trials, and 3 are under multiplication. Meeting our 1000 plant goal by March 2008 for three of the 4 plant species currently in culture. We now have robust estimates of their unit cost of production. Submission of our Phase II proposal, which included a detailed Commercialization Plan which was reviewed by Purdue University and professionals in Montana. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Though we were not successful in getting 9 of the plant species we collected into clean culture, we have more species in culture than we promised in our Phase I proposal. These include key ecosystem components such as a nitrogen-fixer, riparian shrub, and a much in demand grass. Many of the 15 species collected in May did not survive the initiation process. This was unexpected since young, actively growing tissue is often used for tissue culture initiation. Of particular note is that some species for which tissue culture protocols had previously been devised and in use, did poorly when collected from AHM sites. These results emphasize the need to treat each species growing on AHM sites as new to the tissue culture process, regardless of the previous work done for that species. Contamination and survival was low for most cultures, indicating the sterilization method disinfested the explants but may have also damaged the explants. To address this problem, three collection methods were tested during the third collection trip. In general (all other factors combined), survival differed between: plant collection season, seeds versus shoot collection, and explant collection procedure. Using these factors we have adjusted our methods which will improve our future initiation success and will be used in Phase II of this project. Production of 1,000 shoot was easily accomplished well within seven months for three species. Three other species of importance did not have sufficient initial cultures for the multiplication and rooting trials, but will continued to be cultured and further studied. The outcomes of this project can be summarized as follows: A wide variety of potentially useful native plants are found growing and thriving on heavily contaminated former hard rock mining sites in Montana. These plants are found on both riparian and upland, dryland sites. All of the sites we chose and worked on had soils with low (acid) soil pH and elevated heavy metal concentrations. Explants from some of these plants (6 of the 15 we collected) can be collected from live plants growing on acid, heavy metal contaminated (AHM), disinfested, initiated into clean, sterile culture, and coaxed to produce shoots and roots. That is, we were able to regenerate whole, healthy plants which are clones of the mother plant and are likely to have the same tolerance as the mother plant. The cost of producing acid, heavy metal tolerant (AHMT), locally adapted, native plants is similar to that of common ornamental perennial plants and is likely to be economical for use in hard rock mine land reclamation/restoration. The rationale and general methodology we used to produce AHMT native plants can likely be used to produce other adapted native plants for reclamation/restoration of other types of degraded sites. Some examples of other degraded sites are; coal bed methane impacted sites, coal mine spoils, hydrocarbon-contaminated grasslands, bauxite mines, phosphate mines, and other sites contaminated with industrial wastes.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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