Source: SMK PLANTS submitted to NRP
NOVEL USE OF PLANT TISSUE CULTURE FOR SITE-ADAPTED, ACID SOIL, HEAVY METAL TOLERANT, NATIVE PLANTS USEFUL FOR MINE LAND RECLAMATION
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
SMALL BUSINESS GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0214616
Grant No.
2008-33610-19416
Cumulative Award Amt.
$350,000.00
Proposal No.
2008-02069
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2008
Project End Date
Aug 30, 2011
Grant Year
2008
Program Code
[8.4]- Air, Water and Soils
Recipient Organization
SMK PLANTS
5477 GENE SARAZEN DR.
BILLINGS,MT 59106
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
SMK Plants LLC will use plant tissue culture to quickly produce large numbers of acid-soil heavy-metal tolerant (AHMT) locally-adapted native plants suitable for revegetating land contaminated by hard rock mining wastes. Large numbers of AHMT plants are in demand because of the immense area of degraded mine land needing to be reclaimed. It will take billions of dollars to reclaim these lands. We proved in SBIR Phase I the principle that we can find, collect, and tissue culture native plants which grow directly on acidic heavy-metal (AHM)contaminated soil. These plants multiply and root similarly to commercial ornamental plant species with similar production costs, making them economical for reclamation. The goal for our SBIR Phase II project is to tissue culture locally adapted native plant species growing on AHM soils, then successfully grow and over-winter them under commercial greenhouse conditions, and eventually use them to revegetate AHM sites. We will prove that our plants are AHMT with greenhouse and field trials over the two year project term. We will identify native plants that are highly desired by mine land reclamationists by using end-user surveys and canvassing our own contacts. We will have an inventory of AHMT plants for use by August 2010. Revegetation of degraded mine land will benefit society by reducing wind and water erosion from these lands,reducing human exposure and improving human health. Reclamation and revegetation will also improve wildlife habitat, improve aesthetics and recreational values, and may help endangered species.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1330110202050%
1332420102050%
Knowledge Area
133 - Pollution Prevention and Mitigation;

Subject Of Investigation
0110 - Soil; 2420 - Noncrop plant research;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering; 1020 - Physiology;
Goals / Objectives
The proposed research when successful will provide a cost-effective, relatively rapid way to produce native, locally-adapted plants which will be used to reclaim and revegetate AHM (acid soil pH and high concentrations of heavy metals)mined land sites. The plants we will culture have not been commercially propagated by any other means. Society will benefit from these innovations in the following ways: -Wind and water erosion of AHM contaminated soils will be reduced. This in turn will reduce contamination of drinking water and direct human exposure to toxic heavy metals. -Wildlife will benefit as the pre-mining plant community is re-established. -Surface and ground water contamination will be reduced. Reducing this contamination will improve the aquatic habitat for threatened and endangered aquatic species. The overall Project Goal for our SBIR Phase II project is to complete the innovation process started in Phase I. The overall innovation process can be described as taking explants from locally adapted native plants growing on AHM contaminated sites, using plant tissue culture to multiply and root them under sterile conditions, eventually producing tissue cultured AHM tolerant(AHMT) plants, then acclimating, growing to transplantable size, and overwintering them under commercial greenhouse conditions. A key part of the process is to prove that our AHMT plants have distinct advantages over their non-AHMT counterparts in both greenhouse and field trials. By non-AHMT counterpart, we mean plants of the same species, raised either from seed or vegetatively, whose origin is from similar locations but from sites which are not contaminated with heavy metals, nor which have very low soil pH. The final part of the process is to scale up production of the AHMT plants in at commercial nursery, for eventual use in reclamation and restoration projects. The following 4 objectives will accomplish our project goal: 1. Survey end-users to identify additional AHMT candidate plants; 2. Develop techniques to produce AHMT plants from tissue culture through greenhouse production; 3. Demonstrate that the AHMT plants have distinct advantages over their non-AHMT counterparts when planted on AHM soils; and 4. Produce commercially acceptable AHMT plant inventory at a commercial plant nursery.
Project Methods
1. Species Selection. SMK Plants will develop end-user surveys addressing the species needed, number needed, and when they will be needed for current and future reclamation projects. We will conduct the end-user surveys each year to identify AHMT plants with high demand for reclamation projects in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Idaho. They will send these surveys out through U.S. mail, email, and will conduct some of them in person for local parties. These surveys are extremely important to obtain crucial information and to let others know about our innovative approach. They will then rank the candidate species on both potential of commercial success (i.e. how many are needed and when are they needed) and availability on AHM sites. From this ranking they will choose three species each collection season to collect and start the AHMT production process 2. Plant Propagation. This objective has 2 components, tissue culture production and nursery production, to complete the whole process of propagation to commercial size. The goal will be to complete this process for at least 3 species per year. Procedures utilized and refined in Phase I of this project will be will be implemented for the field collection, culture initiation, multiplication, and rooting of tissue cultured (tc) plants from AHM sites. The tc plants will then be tested and procedures adjusted for optimal survival and growth under greenhouse conditions. 3. Performance Trials. Greenhouse and field trials will be conducted to compare the growth and performance of the AHM selected tc plants versus non-selected plants of the same species. Greenhouse trials will involve growing the plants in pots containing soil from AHM sites for 45 days and recording performance criteria such as percent survival, fresh and dry weight, color, etc. Field trials will involve plantings on AHM sites with performance data collected over 2 growing seasons. 4. Plant Inventory. Based on tissue culture success, performance trials, and end-user surveys, 3 species with the best commercial prospects will be selected for further tissue culture production. Following the procedures used in nursery production tasks, 3,000 of the tissue cultured plants will be greenhouse acclimated, potted up, and hardened off in commercial (1qt) containers. These plants will then be ready for revegetation projects by the fall of 2010.

Progress 09/01/08 to 08/31/09

Outputs
OUTPUTS: 1. We have successfully micro-propagated the following Montana native plants; Oenothera cespitosa (OC), Vicia americana (VA), Heuchera parvifolia (HP), Distichlis spicata (DS), Ribes cereum (RC), Salix exigua (SE), Erigeron speciosus (ES) and Purshia tridentata PT). We are working on Tetradymia canescens (TC), Juniperus horizontalis (JH),and Mahonia repens (MR). Explants from all of these were collected on sites with elevated heavy metal concentrations and acidic soils, and are expected to have acid soil, heavy metal tolerance (AHMT). 2. We have finished 7 Greenhouse tests of OC, VA, HP, DS, RC, and PT, comparing our selected plants (i.e putatively AHMT) vs. their non-selected counterparts (non-AHMT). Data analysis of these experiments is on-going. 3. We have installed and are collecting periodic data on 5 field tests, each of which was established at two sites, both on highly contaminated sites. Data collection and data analysis of these field tests is on-going. 4. We have formed relationships with many plant nurseries, e.g. Great Bear Restoration, the Salish/Kootenai Tribal Nursery, Westscape Wholesale Nursery, the Montana Conservation Seedling Nursery and the commercial plant nursery at the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch. 4. The preliminary data and the rationale behind this project have been communicated (via presentations and visits) to: BP/ARCO, the MT DEQ, EPA (Helena, MT,), the USFS (Missoula, MT) and various reclamation/revegetation contractors and consultants 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
Although data analysis is not complete, at this point the results indicate that OC, HP, DS do indeed possess AHMT. We have communicated these preliminary results to interested parties (see above) and have a proposal in to BP/ARCO to test our plants on one of their repositories near Opportunity, MT. DS seems to have the best commercial properties as it spreads via rhizomes, is drought tolerant and does reasonably well on highly contaminated sites. VA seems to do well on contaminated sites whether it was collected from contaminated sites or grown from open-source seed. It is not known at this point whether the VA plants of either type fix nitrogen under field conditions. We will know more after taking data from the field tests this coming spring. We are making excellent progress on micro-propagating TC (grey horsebrush) and JH (horizontal juniper). We are reasonably confident that both of these species have good commercial potential. We believe that TC, JH, and DS have the greatest commercial potential and we are concentrating on them.

Publications

  • S.M. King, M.G. King, S. Jennings, and D. Neuman. 2009. Using Plant Tissue Culture to Develop Plants with Acid Soil, Heavy Metal Tolerance (AHMT), Potentially Useful for Hard-Rock Mine Land Reclamation. In: Revitalizing the Environment: Proven Solutions and Innovative Approaches. Proceedings of the 11th Billings Land Reclamation Symposium. May 30 to June 5, 2009, Billings, MT. CD-ROM Published Jointly by: Billings Land Reclamation Symposium and American Society of Mining and Reclamation.