Reclamation (Phytostabilization/Ecological Restoration): Revegetation and stabilization of contaminated and degraded soils, mineral wastes and Brownfield sites.

Phytoremediation: A 'green' technology that harnesses the power of plants and microbes to remove metals/metalloids from soils, and also to degrade organic contaminants in situ on these sites.

Biomining/ Phytomining: The use of bacteria and plants to enhance the extraction of metals from low grade or part-processed ores that would be uneconomical to process by chemical means.

Bioprospecting/biogeochemical reconnaissance: The use of indicator species, plant community structure and the metal contents of plants and surface soils as tools for identifying the mineral composition of the underlying geology.

 

Professor Baker's research group is actively involved in several restoration projects. One is focused on the revegetation of gold mine tailings contaminated with copper, arsenic and cyanide compounds. Using a range of novel biosolids and amendment techniques, the plan is to cap a highly toxic tailings dam and waste products storage areas in a way that will promote sustainable management of the area. In the long term it is hoped that the revegetated area will produce a variety of cash crops, adding value to the local community after the mine is no longer profitable. This project was funded through an ARC-LINK contract with Curtin University and Stawell Gold Mines, Victoria. We have shown that some plants which naturally bioaccumulate metals in their tissues are able to ameliorate the toxic environment around their roots, allowing the concurrent establishment of less-tolerant species. With more research, including a field-scale trial, this discovery may add a whole new technology to the field of soil revegetation and rehabilitation Phytoremediation is the use of plants as a cost-effective method of 'harvesting' pollutants from contaminated substrates. Some plants naturally accumulate exceptionally high concentrations of metals (hyperaccumulators) and Professor Baker's group is studying the growth and physiology of these hyperaccumulator plants, and how they can be improved to enhance the rate and efficiency of phytoextraction. Recent findings indicate that these plants have exceptional root systems which have evolved for scavenging metals from the soil. Furthermore, the roots of some of these plants actively mobilize (solubilize) metals in the soil to maximize their bioavailability. An additional breakthrough is the discovery that soil microbes (bacteria and fungi) might be pivotal for mobilizing metals for hyperaccumulator plants growing on some soils.