| The area of rough fescue prairie has been reduced in Western Canada because of human activities including housing development. Urban development can impact natural ecosystems by eliminating native species and their habitat. Larch Park is an Edmonton residential development area to which land reclamation and restoration ecology have been applied in order to rebuild natural grassland instead of turf grasses. By using salvaged soil, planting native communities, and adding biochar as a fire surrogate to the soil, we expected ecosystem function and services in the reclaimed site to be more similar to the natural grassland site. A greenhouse study was also conducted to examine the effects of biochar and native species on soil processes. We examined ecosystem functions in the reclaimed and the natural grassland sites by measuring soil nitrogen availability using resin capsules, soil microbial biomass C and N by chloroform fumigation-extraction method, microbial respiration by alkali trap method, and microbial community structure with phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. Disturbance followed by land reclamation at Larch Park caused drastic changes in soil processes. We found significant differences in soil properties including higher nitrogen availability, lower microbial biomass, and lower visual variability of microbial community structure in the reclaimed site compared to the natural grassland site. Greenhouse results showed stimulatory effects of native species on microbial biomass and respiration, and decreasing impact on nitrogen availability. The results also indicated that biochar had some significant interaction effect on soil-plant processes. |
