LAUSR

Plants maintain beneficial mutualistic relationships with the mycobiont communities found in their rhizosphere, leading to an increase in plant productivity and health. In nutrient-depleted substrates like mine tailings, mycobiont inoculation is often recommended to help restore a successful plant cover. Our 15-week greenhouse experiment aimed to assess the individual effects of a dark septate endophyte (Phialocephala fortinii #4; KX611529) and two Helotiales strains (Rhizoscyphus ericae #22; EU221877 and Meliniomyces sp #1; KT275679) on the growth of Salix planifolia cuttings on sterilized and unsterilized waste rock. Rhizoscyphus ericae increased cuttings shoot biomass on sterilized waste rock while Meliniomyces sp had a positive effect for cuttings grown on unsterilized waste rock. However, P. fortinii strain had no effect on the survival rate, shoot production, and biomass production of S. planifolia cuttings. This study demonstrates that controlled inoculation with ecologically well-adapted mycobionts could promote plant establishment and productivity on abandoned waste rock and be an efficient and integrated biotechnological approach for ecological restoration of canadian mining boreal ecosystems.