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Colloque 2020 - Séance d'affiches

The continuous supply of minerals and metals from mining facilitates social and economic development in the world. However, it is also one of the main anthropogenic disturbances on biodiversity and ecological services, especially in Québec boreal forests. Little is known about off-site impacts of mines on surrounding plants. To address this research gap, six gold mines from different stages of the mining lifecycle were selected. Plant species inside plots along the transects (6-8 per mine) at increasing distance (from 0 to 1000 m from mine periphery) were collected. Preliminary results show the presence of off-site impacts of mines and a significant interaction with mine stages : 1) Introduced species were more abundant and diverse near operating mines than that of non-operating mines. 2) Different native herbaceous species were differently impacted by mines. Coptis trifolia and Maianthemum canadense were negatively affected by mining activities whereas Cornus Canadensis were positively affected.